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By Hendrik Conscience. 

Author or *'The Curse of the Village,” “The Village Inn-Keeper,” “Veva,.'’ 
“ The Lion of Flanders,” “ Wooden Clara,” “ Count Hugo of Craenhove,” 
“The Poor Gentleman,” “The Conscript,” “ Ricketicketack,” 

“ Blind- Rosa,” “Tbe Miser,” “The Demon of Gold,” &c. 



Ctanslaltb ®)rpi£g»Ig for l^is ®!)ifiow. 



BALTIMORE: 

Published by John Murphy & Co. 

182 Baltimore Street. 
PHILADELPHIA....J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

Sold by Booksellers Generally, 

1869 . 


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Irefact to t|e ^raentan 


The “Happiness of Being Eich,” like all the 
others Tales of this distinguished author, possesses a 
simple beauty that charms and delights the reader. 
Its scenes, deeply interesting in themselves, are 
rendered the more stricking and entertaining, by 
the under-current of humor, that flows beneath its 
style. Its purity and chasteness of sentiment, its 
freedom from every thing that could in the remotest, 
degree offend the moral or religious sensibility or 
the most refined taste, or raise a scruple in the most 
fastidious mind, must and will commend it to uni- 
versal favor. 





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THE 


HAPPINESS OF BEING EICH. 


CHAPTER 1. 

Katie dear, what heavenly weather it is 
to-day! Oh, the beautiful May-month! It feels 
to me like butter and milk — so balmy and so 
sweet !” 

^^Yes, Annemie, I don’t know what ails my 
feet; they are itching to set off‘ dancing by them- 
selves. This first blessed sunny day makes me 
tremble all over with gladness ; it seems to shine 
quite through me, bones and marrow and all.” 

^^Only look how they are all pouring out of 
their houses to get a little of it. Now life begins 
to be snug and happy again ; we can sit out in the 
street, and sing and chat and drink in the fresh 
air while we work.” 

‘^Yes, ’tis a blessing, isn’t it, Trieny? after being 
shut up these four dreary, endless months in the 
house, like a poor bird in a cage.” 

“And scarcely able to draw our breath in the 
close smoky air of our rooms.” 

1 * 


5 


6 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


And wear out our eyes in the gray murky win- 
ter days/' 

‘‘Yes, and catch colds, and cough so that you 
feared that March would blow you away with him 
to another world." 

“And forget that there is a sun in the sky; and 
count the days one after another, till the darling 
May brings light and warmth back again, for the 
poor man as well as for the rich lord — " 

“Come, come, winter is gone by and forgotten; 
don’t let us think of the old grumbler any more — 

‘ Shepherds and shepherdesses gay 
Sing and dance, for see — ’tis May !’ 

Bring your frames a little nearer; we will sit here 
all four close together, else some kill-joy will come 
between us." 

The young girls who were thus chanting, as they 
prattled, a feeling hymn of praise to the exhila- 
rating May month, were sitting with many others 
in a long narrow street of the city of Antwerp. 

The houses on either side of this little street 
were mean and small ; they had each a little round- 
headed door at the entrance, and admitted the 
scanty daylight, yet further diminished in its 
transit through the green panes of their narrow 
windows. 

One of the corner houses* was distinguished 
from the others by its greater height and its new- 
fashioned window-frames. This was the grocer’s 
corner; and although his customers were all of a 
very humble class, he had contrived to do very 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


7 


well, and at the end of a few j^ears might he 
considered rich, in comparison with his humble 
neighbors. 

Ov^er the way stood an old house, which also 
boasted a first floor-; but, for all that, its exterior 
was rather mean and dirty. Above the door was 
a sign-board, on which were painted two large 
letters, A. B. These signified that the house was 
occupied by a chimney-sweeper, or, as he was called 
in the Antwerp patois, a Schouwveger. This citizen 
ranked second in the street after the grocer, be- 
cause his house was his own property.* 

After him, in order of worldly consideration, fol- 
lowed a shoemaker, or rather a cobbler, who could 
not indeed boast of a house of his own, but yet 
contrived by industry to live without want and 
without care. 

It was before the shoemaker’s door that Katie 
and her three friends sat working ; farther on in 
the street were many other damsels, who were also 
gathered into little groups, and continued their 
work amid reiterated exclamations and felicita- 
tions on the beauty of the weather. 

Each of them had before her a square frame, on 
which was stretched a piece of net or woven lace ; 
and on this they were embroidering, with needle 
and thread, flowers and foliage of every conceiv- 


* In Antwerp the chimney-sweepers are reckoned among the 
lesser crafts, and are noted for their continual humor and mirth- 
ful disposition. The badge of their guild consists of the two 
letters, A. B. 


V 


8 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


able kind. In Antwerp phrase, they were working 
lace-stitch) in order that at the close of a long day 
they might have earned a few sous, and so lighten 
the burden of mother’s housekeeping; also, in 
good seasons, to buy a neat little frock, or a pretty 
cap with gay-colored ribbons, for themselves. 

Although these embroiderers belonged to the 
lowest class of artisans, the cleanness and even ele 
gance of their dress were very remarkable. It is 
an acknowledged fact that the Antwerp girls of 
the lower classes are distinguished by an especial 
cleanliness, and also by the becoming way in which 
they arrange their dress; and, among them all, the 
lace-gtitch workers are very conspicuous. How 
can they help being always clean, when from 
morning to night their hands are gliding over 
snow-white net or lace ? If the least stain or soil 
were to disfigure their work, they would be scolded 
for their untidiness by the lace factors, be mulcted 
of their pay, and refused further work. 

You must not imagine, however, dear reader, 
that this tidiness had its origin in necessity alone. 
It may have been so at first, perhaps, but eveiy one 
knows the force of habit. This remarkable clean- 
liness has now become quite a characteristic and 
instinct of the lace-stitch workers ; and if at any 
time they are obliged to earn their daily bread by 
labor of another kind, the same neatness and pro- 
jiriety may be remarked in all they do. 

Moreover, look at them well from head to foot : 
tlxeir clothes are indeed very humble, and of com- 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


9 


mon cotton ; sometimes the color has partly dis- 
appeared; but how nicely washed — how neatly 
ironed out ! not a speck, not a stain ; it is as if they 
had seven Sundays in the week. 

Are they pretty ? Yes, and no. They are young, 
and that is something. Most of them might have 
been pretty too, for their features are fine and regu- 
lar enough ; hut their cheeks are altogether so pale, 
their limbs so thin ! Poor daughters of the people, 
luxury and wealth have hunted them out of all the 
open airy streets, built houses everywhere of which 
they could never pay the rent, and driven them 
back farther and farther into the dingy, dirty 
streets, in which neither burgher nor rich man 
cared to live. Drooping fiowers, reared in dusky 
cellars and gari^ts, their blood is colorless, and 
consumption is the worm which lies gnawing at 
the root of the life of so many of them; and yet 
they are blithe, and they sing amid their ever- 
lasting toil ! 

Of the four girls who were sitting and working 
together before the shoemaker’s door, there were 
two whose vital energies had not been impaired 
by lack of light and air and fitting nourishment. 
Their parents were in somewhat easier 'circum- 
stances, and perhaps they had not, like their 
neighbors, lived generation after generation in 
the stifling, unwholesome cellars of this narrow 
street. 

One of them was called Katie, and was the 
daughter of the shoemaker ; the other was called 


10 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEINH RICH. 


Aunemie, and lived at the green-grocer’s. The 
cheeks of both were ruddy with the fresh hue of 
youth, and their lips had not lost their exquisite 
coral-red. Katie had soft blue eyes and fair hair ; 
Annemie looked as if she had Spanish blood in 
her veins, for her face was shadowed with a light 
brown, and her eyes and hair were black as jet. 

While they were working quietly with their two 
companions, they saw at the end of the street a 
dame already advanced in years. She was com- 
ing toward them, and they followed her with their 
eyes until she disappeared at the little door of the 
chimney-sweeper’s house. One of the girls then 
remarked : 

‘^Dame Smet doesn’t let the grass grow under 
her feet ; she has got a new gown again, and a 
double-plaited cap — ” 

‘^Oh, Annemie, there you are again, always 
sneering and quizzing. What matter is it of ours 
what clothes other people wear, if they are able to 
pay for them ?” 

‘‘Yes, Katie, that’s very true; but for all that, 
you see, pride may have a good deal to do with it.” 

“ Pride ? Oh, she is such a good, kind creature !” 

“Yes, yes; Dame Smet holds up her head as if 
my Lady Van Hoogenberg were her sister; and as 
she goes along in her grand gowns, she looks down 
on us as if we were not good enough to tie her 
shoes.” 

“ You think so, Annemie ; but I assure you it is 
not so, Everybody has her own ways. Dame 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING KICH. 


11 


Smet is of a veiy good family. She has an aunt 
in Holland who is so rich, so rich ! I don’t know 
how many bags of gold she has — and, you see, 
when anybody comes of a good family it is in the 
blood, and you can’t get rid of it again.” 

Always with her prating about her family! 
What good does that do her? Everybody, even 
her own husband, laughs at her. I should be 
ashamed to make so much fuss about it; it is so 
absurd in the wife of a schouwveger.” 

Katie was not pleased with these taunts; she 
raised her voice, and said, in a sharper tone, as if 
she were a little out of humor — 

don’t know what concern it is of yours. 
Schouwveger or not, they live in their own house, 
and owe nobody any thing;, they can pay their 
way, and needn’t trouble themselves about the 
envy of their neighbors.” 

^Ht would be odd if you didn’t like her,” said 
another of the girls, with a smile; ‘‘she is Pauw’s 
mother.” 

“ Come, come, Katie, don’t be vexed — it is only 
my way of talking,” said Annemie. “Eveiybody 
bakes his own loaf as he likes it ; and if he chooses 
to burn his fingers in the pan, that is his own look- 
out.” 

After a short pause, one of the girls asked, in a 
kindly tone — 

“Tell us, now, Katie: I heard say yesterday — 
but I can’t believe it — that you are going to be 
married.” 

M 


12 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


With a heightened color on her cheeks, Katie 
stammered out — 

Oh, these neighbors ! Give them an inch, they 
take an ell !” 

So, it is true, then?” 

‘‘ Not quite : Master Smet has been joking about 
it with my father.” 

Ha, then the thing is half done. Well — good 
luck to you, Katie !” 

One of the other girls curled her lip with a kind 
of disdain, and said — 

^‘Ay, ay, Kate — to marry a chimney-sweep — a 
fellow who is, six days in the week, as black as old 
Kick himself! Why, if he were covered with gold 
from head to foot, I wouldn’t have him.” 

‘^That’s because you can’t get him!” muttered 
Katie. 

I wouldn’t have him either, though he is the 
merriest lad in the whole quarter,” remarked 
another girl. Sundays, when he is washed, he 
is all very well ; but in the week ! you can’t shake 
hands with him but you must run off to the 
pump ; and when you talk to him, you have al- 
V7ays that everlasting black phiz of his before your 
eyes. Bless me I ’^tis enough to frighten one out 
of one’s senses. When he laughs and shows his 
white teeth, he cuts a face like a dog chewing 
cayenne pepper — ” 

‘‘ What a wucked tongue you have!” interposed 
the talkative Annemie. “Pauw is the best lad 
you will find anywhere about; he sings such 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


13 


merry songs, lie dances and jumps — he is the life 
of the whole street. Everybody is glad when he 
comes by, for wherever he is there is laughter and 
merriment. And then look at him on Sundays, 
when he walks up and down with his blue coat, 
and tosses his head with his pretty cap on it ! I 
say he is a very good-looking lad, and Katie is 
quite right to like him — especially if her father and 
mother don’t object.” 

At this moment they heard at a distance the cry 
— Aejpj aejp^ aep — echoing merrily through the 
narrow street. 

‘^Ah, there is Pauw, with his father!” exclaimed 
they all together, with a joyous laugh. ^‘Ah, Jan- 
Grap and Pauwken-Plezier .^’’f 

At one end of the street, some considerable dis- 
tance from the group of girls, a man was seen ap- 
proaching. He w^as about fifty years old, but in 
the full vigor of life, and walked with a light elastic 
step, and with his head quite upright. His clothes, 
like those of all the schouwvegers, Avere made of 
coarse, unbleached linen, and fitted quite close to 
his body; he wsls covered — face and hands and 
all — with soot. He seemed of a A^ery lively tem- 
perament ; for as he Avent along he kept up a con- 


* This is the customary cry of the Antwerp chimney-sweepers ; 
they are bound to thrust their heads out at the top of the chimney, 
and shout this cry three times,, to show that their work is tho- 
roughly done. 

t Jan-Gladsome and Pauwken-Mirthful. 

M 2 


14 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


tinual laugli with the neighbors, and had a joke 
for everybody. 

Five or six steps behind him came his son, 
Pauw; a sprightly youth, just on the verge of 
manhood. His face and clothes were black with 
soot; the whiteness of his eyes and teeth, and the 
living red of his lips, contrasted strikinglj^ with his 
dusky features. • 

A sack filled with soot hung over his shoulder ; 
in his right hand was a little brush, and, besides, 
a branch of whitethorn in full fiower — the May- 
flower of the Antwerp people. 

As he entered the street, humming a lively 
ditty, and making all kinds of astonishing leaps, 
his grimaces and gesticulations awakened the mer- 
riment of all the neighborhood. 

^‘Vieze Breugel!”* said one. 

^^They may well call him Pauwken-Plezier,’' re- 
marked another; there is always laughing going 
on where he is.’’ 

^^As the old birds sing, so the young ones chirp. 
He and his father will die laughing.” 

“ ’Tis the w^ay with the Antwerp chimney- 
sweepers — ’tis the badge of their craft. A solemn 
schouwveger is more scarce than a lively under- 
taker.” 

‘AVell, that’s what I like,” said an old chair- 
maker : they’re quite in the right of it ; they 


* The name of a famous Flemish painter. His subjects were 
usually comic, and he was hence called vieze^ funny or facetious. 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


15 


don’t neglect their work, and they pay everybody 
his own. Do. well and live merry: you can’t 
better that. 

Annemie sprang up suddenly, and exclaimed — 

‘^Listen! he’s got a new song. Oh, isn’t it a 
beautiful one? Where does he get them all 
from ?” 

‘‘He makes them all himself,” said Katie, with 
gratified pride. 

“Dear me! is ho such a scholar as that? I 
didn’t know that.” 

“Yes; there isn’t a single notice on the church 
door that he can’t read : he has it all at his fin- 
gers’ ends.” 

The young chimney-sweep had meanwhile come 
so near that they could distinguish what he was 
singing so lustily. It was a right merry ditty, 
and its light tripping melody was well adapted to 
the peculiar kind of dancing step which the Ant- 
werp folk call a “ flikker” and the French “ un 
entrechat.” 

Pauwken-Plezier sang thus, with sundry odd 
grimaces by way of accompaniment:— 


“ Schouwvegers gay, who live in A. B., 
Companions so jolly, 

All frolic and folly, — 

Schouwvegers gay, who live in A. B., 

Come out, and sing us a glee. 

Your Schouwveger gay is a right merry fellow; 
Though sooty his skin. 

The wit’s all within. 


16 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


The blacker his phiz 
The blither he is. 

He climbs and he creeps — 

He brushes and sweeps — 

He sings and he leaps — 

At each chimney he drinks till he’s mellow. 

Aep, aep, aep! 

Light-hearted and free — 

Always welcome is he!” 

And as while he was singing he manifested t 
strong inclination to come very close to Katie, hei 
companions uttered a loud scream, and held their 
hands spread over their frames to protect them 
from stain. 

^‘Ko, Pauw; get along with you; be quiet, 
do; you will make our work dirty!” they 
shrieked. 

But Pauw seemed to become suddenly more 
peaceful and quiet, under the inspiration of the 
sweet smile which Katie had bestowed on him at 
sight of the flowers. She well knew that the first 
gift of the fair Ma^^-month was destined for her ; 
her blue eyes beamed v.dth gentle gratitude, and 
they so touched the young schouwveger, that the 
song died away on his lips and the laugh from his 
countenance. 

After a while, as though he could not be serious 
long together, he conquered his emotion, and said, 
laughingly — 

“Katie, I have been roaming about the fields — 
that is to say, from village to village — and I have 
been singing aep, aep^ aep, with all my might, in 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


17 


opposition to the nightingales, until my throat is 
as rough as a grater. But I met out there a dam- 
sel, so beautiful, such a darling; and she was so 
atFectionate to me that I almost — “ITow, now, 
don’t be sulky, Katie. The damsel asked me, 
then, whether I had a liking for anybody ? I was 
going to say no, but I didn’t like to tell a lie ; and 
when I nodded my head to say yes^ she asked me 
what was the name of the girl I liked better than 
anybody else. ‘Ah,’ said I, ‘don’t you know? 
Ha, ha, ’tis a little lass like a rose, and her name 
is Katie.’ ‘Ah, well,’ says the young damsel, 
‘ make my compliments to her, and give her these 
flowers from me.’ ” 

All the girls were staring at the chimney-sweep 
with their mouths open, and a half-incredulous 
smile on their faces. 

“ ‘And if you always love each other, in honor 
and in virtue,’ said she, then, ‘I will make you 
merry every year, and give you all kinds of flowers, 
as many as you like>’ ” 

“Who could it have been?'’ asked the palest 
of the girls, in amazement. 

“You know her well enough, all the time,” said 
Pauw, laughing. 

“What is her name, then?” 

“Her name is Mademoiselle de May.” 

“Mademoiselle de May? I know a Madame 
do May, who lives round the corner at the dry- 
salter’s ; but it can’t be her.” 

“ Oh ! don’t you see the rogue takes us all foi 
2 * 


18 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


fools?” cried Annemie. means Mademoi- 

selle de May-montli!” 

Exactly so: .1 meant onr old acquaintance!” 
said Pauw, still laughing, as he gave the fragrant 
branch of thorn to Katie, and said to another of 
ihe girls — 

Trieny, will you have some ? Oh, they smell 
so nice 1” 

The girl reached out her hand, and Pauw struck 
her gently with the branch. 

“Oh my! you ugly old schouwveger 1” ex- 
claimed Trieny. 

“Ko rose without a thorn,” said Pauw, sport- 
ively. 

But Trieny was so vexed that she stood up, put 
her arms akimbo, and assailed him thus : 

“ Oh, you black, sooty villain 1 what do you 
think of yourself? You go roaming about doing 
nothing, and think you may take any liberty. Go 
and wash yourself, you dirty nigger. Your father 
is at home already. Make haste, or you’ll catch 
the rod!” 

“Look at the little dragoon, how well she rides 
her horse !” said the young sweep, in a mocking 
tone of voice. “You are not tongue-tied, any- 
how, Trieny. Ill-temper doesn’t become you — ^jmu 
ought to have a nice pair of moustaches.” 

And with these w^ords, he made a gesture as 
though he were about to reach the face of the girl 
with his black fingers ; but all the group set on 
him at once, and overwhelmed him with abuse; 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


19 


Hobgoblin ! Ugly schouwveger ! Soot-sack ! 
Aep, aep, aep!” and sundry other curious appel- 
lations. 

Pauw could not bear down the clamor, so he 
began to beat a retreat, shaking his head from side 
to side as if he would allow the shafts of their in- 
vectives to fly over his shoulders harmless. Then 
he shouted all at once — 

‘^Holloa, my little darlings, I must just make an 
end of this, and then go and wash myself. Heads 
up ! one, two, three !” 

At these words he cut five or six capers in the 
air, and shook his soot-bag so vigorously that he 
diftused a dark cloud over the scene, singing the 
while — 

“ Sing and dance, Pauw, my boy — 

For nobody can harm you.” 

All the girls raised their frames and ran off 
with cries of dismay, lest their work should be 
stained by the soot. While some were running 
and screaming, and others laughing and shouting, 
the sehouwveger capered away toward the door of 
his house, shouting to them — 

Good-by, my dear little turtle-doves ! d ianidL 
I’ll just go and put on my Sunday face !” 


20 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING HIGH. 


CHAPTER n. 

The little narrow street had been already for 
half an hour wraj^ped in the shades of evening. 
Mother Smet, the schouwveger’s wife, was sitting 
at a table, and was busy in darning the Avoollen 
stockings of her Pauw, by the glimmering of a 
small lamp. Her clothes were not simply clean — 
thej^ were, more costlj^ than her condition in life 
would have indicated; for, although she was in her 
own house, and would not probably go out again for 
the evening, she wore a rose-colored jacket with 
little flowers, a cloth gown trinimed with velvet, 
and a cap white as snow, with stately wings. 

Sad or irritating thoughts seemed to be passing 
through her mind ; for very often she would pause 
in her work, and then her countenance would be 
clouded with an expression of anger or vexation. 

That’s the way they always cheat poor people 
who happen to have any thing left them,” she 
muttered, at lengths They know how to mystify 
it, and to draw it out, and put it off till the poor 
legatee is dead, and then the rascals quietly put 
the whole into their own pockets. It makes me 
mad to think of it. Old Kobe the mason, in the 
Winkel Street — he happened to have a hundred 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


21 


thousand crowns left him ; all was quite straight- 
forward — but they dragged him about backward 
and forward, from Herod to Pilate, so long, that 
he died of starvation in his little attic. Six 
months afterward the inheritance was shared be- 
tween three or four great men, who didn’t want it 
at all ; and I suppose the best part of Kobe’s share 
was left sticking to the fingers of those lawyers. 
But they shan’t treat me so, I can tell them. If it 
cost me my last farthing. I’ll see what has become 
of the legacy of my aunt in Holland^ — the pre- 
cious thieves !” 

At this moment her husband came down-stairs, 
blew out the lamp he had in his hand, set it down 
on a shelf, and then stood with his arms folded, 
looking with a smile on his amiable wife. The 
schouwveger’s face was now washed quite clean ; 
his clothes were such as were usually worn by the 
inferior burghers, whenever they went out of an 
evening to drink a pint of beer with their neigh- 
bors. 

‘^I fancy I’ve pretty well served out the rats in 
the attic now,” said he. Only guess. Trees, Vhat 
I have done ?” 

Oh, let me alone,” answered his wife, in a pet. 
‘‘You have been serving out the rats these ten 
years past; but they serve us out the worst. Only 
leave any thing in the attic, and if ’tis only a 
Boot-bag, they have gnawed it to pieces before 
morning.” 

“Well, how can I help it? Do you fancy I can 


22 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


catcli all the rats in the city? They are always 
on the move, and they run along the drains and 
gutters. They don’t take a lease of a house ; but 
if they find themselves well off, there they stay. 
I saw one morning, Trees, a black fellow with a 
tail long enough to make a pair of garters of. 
But, dame, your nose is out of joint to-day; you 
don’t ride your hobby easily. Always these sour 
looks !” 

I look just as I like !” 

^‘To be sure, to be sure — only so much the 
worse that you do it on purpose. I have noticed 
all day that you have got a thorn in your foot. 
Something about lawyers, I fancy, or your aunt in 
Holland, or legacies, bags of gold, and other 
castles in the air?” 

’Tis no business of yours. What do you know 
about it?” 

‘‘Well, Trees, listen once for all — quite seriously 
and without laughing.” 

“Without laughing? You can’t, you merry- 
andrew, you !” 

“ Well, just listen. We have been married now 
nearly five-and-twenty years ; next year, come St. 
John-in-the-oil, is our jubilee, our silver wedding- 
feast.* All these years you have been running 
about after lawyers, and tying up wills, and codi- 

* Maj 6th, a feast in memory of St. John’s being cast into a 
cauldron of seething oil, and coming forth unhurt. The twenty- 
fifth year of wedded life is the silver jubilee; the fiftieth, the 
golden. 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


23 


cils, and registers — and every month carrying ever 
so manj^ pretty francs to that little black man. 
If all this money were in oiie heap, it would he a 
snug little inheritance by itself; for there are a 
good many months in five-and-twenty years. Up 
to now I have let you do what you liked ; but now 
every thing is so confoundedly dear. Potatoes 
are two francs the sack ; meat is so dear that the 
money I get for sweeping one chimney wouldn’t 
buy enough for us to point at — and bread, bread !” 

“Yes, much you care what bread costs !” said his 
wife, scornfully, “if only beer doesn’t rise in price.” 

“Yow, as long as there is enough, even if ’tis 
something rather coarse, I shouldn’t make a fuss 
about it, mother dear. A cheerful temper is as 
good as bread. But I’m getting out of my beat. 
What I wanted to say to you is this: you lie 
dreaming of my aunts and my uncles^ and of all 
sorts of miserable legacies you are going to get. 
Stuff and nonsense, all the time ! And eveiy day 
you get worse and worse. Trees. If you don’t 
leave off — you are growing old now — you will have 
a screw loose in your head ; and if you don’t take 
care, God only knows whether you w^on’t find 
yourself in the madhouse, with all your Dutch my 
aunts and my uncles.'' 

His wife stood up, and answered, with a smile of 
derision on her lips: “Well, well, what one must 
hear from one’s own husband ! Do you mean to 
say that I am not of a good family ?” : 

“ Oh, no, my little wife ; you come of a verj^ 


24 the happiness oe heing rich. , 

good family, I know — from the family of Jan every- 
body. Your' father, of blessed memory, kept a 
rag-shop, and sold all sorts of odds and ends, bits 
of old iron, and copper, and lead ; and people 
thought he was rich — I suppose because he was 
such an old screw ; but when he died at last, no 
money was forthcoming, and we got nothing but 
our cottage. Well, that’s quite enough. Your 
niece goes about selling oranges, your venerable 
aunt picks up old iron and bones, your uncle’s son 
is a fireman — most excellent, worthy, reputable 
people, all of them ; but that much fat drips from 
their fingers — that isn’t true.” 

Who is talking of my family here in Belgium 5 
In Holland are Van den Bergs by the thousand.” 

“ There are plenty more Janssens. These twenty 
years you have been hunting up all the Van den 
Bergs on the face of the earth, to see if any of them 
belong to our family^ and yon have spent foolishly 
I won’t say how many crowns about it. Moon- 
shine, every bit of it. A man sees just what he 
likes to see. Go and stand on the wharf by the 
Scheldt when there’s a bit of breeze, and look at 
the driving clouds. What will you see ? A man 
on horseback — Hapoleon — a giant — a coach-and- 
four — a dragon with seven heads? You have 
only to wish— there it is before you. And so it 
is with you. Trees dear, you have a regular 
puppet-show in your brains.” 

The dame sat down again, and said, with de- 
sponding sadness on her every feature — 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


25 


It is wonderful how obstinate you are ; and I 
was hoping you would go this afternoon to our 
lawyer’s. The rogue, after keeping me waiting 
these two years, and getting hold of all my crowns 
— for wax, and paper, and letters, and I don’t 
know what besides — has told me this very day 
that my family, large as it is, consists entirely of 
poor people. He has given me back all my letters 
and papers in a heap, and told me good-humoredly 
enough not to come to his house again.” 

‘‘Well, that lawyer is a fine fellow. He might 
go on taking your money; but he doesn’t want to 
fieece you, and he gives you good advice for 
nothing. There are not many such lawyers to be 
found — at least so says the song, for I don’t know 
much about them myself ; and if they had to live 
on my money^ they would get precious little butter 
to their bread.” 

This colloquy seemed to have relieved Mother 
Smet of the vexation which had worried her all 
the day; so it was with a milder tone that she 
replied — 

“ Say what yon like, I shall be rich yet before 
I’m laid in my grave. I am of a good family, 
and shall have some legacy. This very night I 
dreamed I found a lump of gold as big as the 
door-stone.” 

“ Ha !” shouted the schouwveger, laughing ; 
“then that's a sign you’ll wait a long time. If 
you had dreamed of spider’s webs, now — that be- 
tokens money — ” 


3 


26 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEINH HIGH. 


All at once they both heard a noise over their 
heads. 

^‘Eh, what’s that?” asked the chimney-sweeper. 

Don’t you hear what it is ?” said his wife, with 
a provoking smile ; ’tis the rats come out into the 
attic again, and laughing at you for a fool. Much 
they care for the fine trick you have played them !” 

‘AYell, that’s wonderful !” growled Master Smet ! 
‘^1 filled up every hole and crevice just now with 
chalk and ground glass. I’ll just go and see; 
perhaps I left one hole — but I don’t bear them any 
more now.” 

“But, Smet,” asked his wife, “suppose we were 
to become rich some fine day, what would you 
do?” 

“For God’s sake. Trees, don’t wmrry me with 
all this stuff about being rich. We are not in 
want of any thing. Our Dord gives us our daily 
bread, and he gives me my pint of beer with my 
friends — what more could we wish for?” 

“Yes; but if only you were rich, now?” 

Her husband put his hand to his forehead, and 
answered, after a little consideration — 

“What would I do? Let me see : I’d manage 
very well, you may be sure. In the first place, I 
would paint our house and our sign, and gild the 
A.B. Secondly, I’d buy four hams all at once, to 
make a good cheer in the winter. Thirdly — what 
would I do thirdly? Oh, I’d give four sacks of 
potatoes and six quarters of coal to the poor 
widow with her sick children, there round the 


THE HAPPINESS QF BEING RICH. 27 

eorner. Fourthly, I’d buy a house for our Pauw; 
and the day he married Katie we would have such 
a wedding-feast that you should smell it all the 
jvay up to the Magpie hill.” 

‘‘ And is that all, now ? that’s well worth being 
rich for !” 

How do I know what I should do besides ? 
But, once for all, I should live well, and make my 
friends live well too.” 

And would you remain a chimney-sweep 
rtill?” 

Eh, what do you say ?” 

Whether you would remain a chimney-sweep 
rtill ?” 

Yes — that is to say, I should sweep chimneys 
for my own pleasure.” 

^^Ha, ha, you stupid booby!” exclaimed his 
wife, bursting into a loud laugh. 

And what should I do else with my time?” 
asked Master Smet. ‘‘ Do you think I should like 
to sit all day long in the public-house ? Let us 
hear now. Trees, how you would manage matters if 
a treasure fell from the sky into our hands.” 

Oh, I know how to manage much better. I 
am of a good family,” said the wife, with a tone 
of exultation. “I should buy a large house in the. 
Kipdorp, or on the Meir; I would have a coach 
and four horses, and a sledge for the winter. I 
would have my clothes of silk and velvet, with 
a muft' and a boa — ” 

‘‘What’s that you say? A hoa — what is that?” 


28 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


Oh, something to wear round the neck like 
fine ladies.” 

Isn’t that the tail of some wild beast?” 

‘^Yes, indeed; that costs something! — and I 
would wear diamonds on my breast, in my ears, 
and on my fingers ; and behind, my gowfi should 
have a long train, like the queens in the old 
comedies ; and wherever I went, a footman should 
follow me — ^you know how I mean, with a yellow 
coat, and a gold band round his hat. And then 
I should come and walk through this street every 
day, to make the grocer’s wife over the way burst 
with envy and spite — ” 

^^Oh, leave off, leave off!” roared the chimney- 
sweeper, ^‘or you’ll make me burst with laughing. 
Don’t you see my Lady Smet, the schouwveger’s 
wife, Avalking the streets with a long train to her 
gown, with a fox’s tail round her neck, and a 
great big canary-bird at her heels? If you are 
not talking like a fool now. Trees, then I knock 
under. You may put me in the madhouse at once ; 
for one or other of us two has a bee in his bonnet. 
But only listen, what a row there is up-stairs: the 
rats are splitting with laughter at you. Trees.” 

^^But what is the matter up in the attic? What 
a screaming and scampering ! Just go and look, 
Smet. You’d better open all the holes again, 
for I think all the rats in the neighborhood have 
got together there since you took to playing them 
tricks.” 

The schouwveger rose from the table, lighted 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


29 


his lamp, and took an old rusty sabre from behind 
the great chest. 

‘^ril let them see,” said he ; “but get out a few 
cents read;y’^ Ti^es; for I want to go and get my 
pint of beer.” 

Mother Smet remained below and listened awhile 
to the noise that her husband made with his sabre, 
hewing and thrusting at the rats in the attic. But 
soon the noise ceased, and she fell into a deep reve- 
rie and dreamed of silken clothes, and diamond ear- 
rings, and footmen with gold bands round their hats. 

She remained some time lost in contemplation 
of the happiness of being rich; a sweet smile 
illumined her countenance, and she kept nodding 
with her head as though her mind were giving 
reality to the images which her fancy shaped. 

At last she heard the stairs creak beneath the 
heavy tread of her husband; she looked up in 
astonishment, for she saw no light on the staircase. 

“Is your lamp gone out?” she asked. 

The scliouwveger stalked down the stairs in 
silence, and came close to her wdth unsteady steps. 
He was trembling in every limb, and the perspira- 
tion stood in thick drops on his pale face. 

His wife uttered a cry of terror ; then she sprang 
up, and exclaimed — 

“ Good heavens ! what has come over you ? 
What have you seen ? — a thief? a ghost ?” 

“Silence! silence! let me fetch my breath,” 
murmured the chimney-sweeper, with hushed and 
stifled voice. 

N 3^^ 


30 THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 

^^But what has happened, then?” shouted his 
wife; ^^you make me feel more dead than 
alive.” 

‘^Silence, I say! speak softer, Trees,” mumbled 
her husband, as if paralyzed by fear. ‘‘Don't let 
anybody hear us.” 

He came closer to her, stooped his head over her 
shoulder, and whispered — 

“ Trees, Trees dear, your dream is come true — 
a treasure — such a great treasnr’O 

“Oh, poor, unhappy Smet!” shrieked his wife, 
in alarm ; “ he has lost his senses !” 

“ Ho, no ; don’t make any noise, or we are lost,” 
said her excited husband, imploringly. 

“But speak out, then; for goodness’ sake, what 
has happened?” 

“I have found a treasure, exactly as you 
dreamed.” 

“A lump of gold?” 

“Ho, a bag of money — all silver and gold! 
Come, take the lamp; I’ll let you see it.” 

His wufe now grew pale in her turn, and trembled 
with astonishment. How she began to believe that 
he was in earnest, and amid all her emotion a warm 
smile played about her lips. Following her hus- 
band, she said, beseechingly — 

“0 Smet, don’t deceive me; if it isn’t true, I 
shall die of vexation — ” 

“Hold your tongue, I tell you,” muttered the 
schouwveger between his teeth, as he went up the 
stairs ; “ you will betray us.” 


THE HAPPINESS OP BEING RICH^ 


31 


‘‘But how came you to find it?” asked his wife, 
with hushed voice. 

Master Smet stood still, as though he wished to 
gratify the curiosity of his helpmate before show'- 
ing her the treasure. 

“You heard well enough, Trees/' said he, “how 
I struck about on the floor wfith my sabre. "WTien 
I got up-stairs there wasn’t a rat to be seen, but 
those blows of mine made two jump out of a 
corner; they ran between my legs, and disap- 
peared close to the centre-beam on which the roof 
is supported. I went up to the place with my 
lamp, but I found no opening nor crevice. After 
I had hunted in every hole and corner I went back 
to the great beam, for I couldn’t conceive where 
the two rats had got to. Though I didn’t see any 
hole, or crack even, in the beam, I struck it with 
mj^ sabre — I don’t know why, exactly. It sounded 
so hollow and made such a strange noise that I 
struck it harder and harder, thinking that the 
rats had taken up their abode inside. All of a 
sudden a little square plank started from the 
beam; and plump! down came something on my 
foot, so heavy that I was going to cry out with 
pain — ” 

“A lump of gold ?” 

“No, not exactly; a bag of money! It burst 
in falling, and all sorts of gold and silver coins 
rolled about the floor. I felt as if I had had a good 
blow from a hammer: the lamp fell out of my 
hand, I shook all over, and I was obliged to hold 


32 THE HAPPINESS OP BEING RICH. 

by the wall to come down-stairs. Every thing 
seemed to be turning round and round before my 
eyes ; I felt like a drunken man. ifow come, 
walk on the tips of your toes, and when you 
speak, lower your voice as much as yon can.” 

'When they reached the attic, the chimney- 
sweeper led his wife toward the centre-beam, and 
let the light of the lamp fall on a large linen bag 
which lay on the ground, with pieces of money all 
around it. 

Dame Smet fell on her knees with a suppressed 
cry of joy, tore the bag open still farther, buried 
her hands in the pieces of money, remained a short 
time sunk in silent amazement, and then sprang 
to her feet. She raised her hands above her head, 
ran round and round the attic, and danced and 
jumped, and at last shouted, with a loud cry — 

Oh ! oh ! I am bursting ! I shall split ! Let me 
speak a bit ! 0 blessed heavens ! now we are rich, 

rich as Jews !” 

Full of terror, the schouwweger seized his wife 
violently by the arm with one hand, laid the other 
on her mouth, and growled angrily, and with a 
threatening voice — 

‘‘You stupid, thoughtless fool ! Be quiet, or I’ll 
pinch your arm black and blue. Do you want the 
neighbors to know all about it?” 

“Good heavens!” groaned his wife, quite terri- 
fied; “what’s the matter now? You are making 
a face as if you would kill me outright. How 
money alters a man ! , All the five-and-twenty 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


33 


years we have been married, I never saw your 
eyes glare like that !” 

The chimney-sweeper seemed surprised at hia 
own vehemence ; he let go her arm, and continued 
more calmly: 

‘‘ITo, no. Trees, I don’t mean it ; but, I beg you, 
talk more softly, and don’t make any noise. Tell 
me, where shall we put all this monej^?” 

‘‘Well, let us put it down-stairs in the great 
chest, and lock it up.” 

“And suppose thieves were to come ?” 

“ Why should they take it into their heads to 
come just now ? The chest has stood there these 
hundred years.” 

“Yes; but you can’t be sure about it.” 

“You must put it somewhere, anyhow.” 

“ Suppose I hide it under our bed in the straw ?” 

“Oh, one can see you are not used to money, 
Smet. Do you think rich people hide their money 
in their beds ? Put it in the chest, I tell you. K 
you find a better place to-morrow, it will be time 
enough to change our minds.” 

Taking the second lamp from the fioor, the 
chimney-sweeper said — 

“ Trees, you take the money in your apron. I 
will go down and lock the door, that nobody may 
take us by surprise; and take care you don’t let 
the money chink as you carry it.” 

While his wife was descending the stairs with 
a heavy freight of gold. Master Smet locked the 
door, and drew the night-bolt; then he went to 


84 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING HIGH. 


the window, to the trap-door of the cellar, to the 
back door, and tried all the holts and bars. Mean- 
while his wife had locked all the treasure in the 
great chest, and she was already sitting at the 
table, staring into the air Avith heaving bosom, 
and lingering on the sweet contemplation of her 
wealth. 

Her husband came close to her, stretched out 
his hand, and said, with a stern voice — 

^‘The key!” 

^‘The key?” exclaimed Dame Smet, in haughty 
amazement. ^Ht shan’t come to that in our old 
days — that you should keep the keys ! I have 
kept them in all honor these, five-and-twenty 
years. You would like, maybe, to squander the 
money in your schouwveger’s club; but stop a 
bit: I keep the money-box!” 

Master Smet shook his head impatiently. 

^‘Yo,” growled he; it is to hinder you from 
wasting all the money. When we had but little, 
it didn’t seem worth while to save ; but noAv I’ll 
take care that we lay by something for the time 
when Ave are old and infirm, else Ave may fall into 
poverty and misery before Ave die.” 

^^Well, Avell, Smet, my lad, money doesn’t do 
you any good,” said the dame, Avith an angiy, 
taunting voice. ^^You talk like an old miser; 
you make a face like an undertaker — ” 

Come, Trees, give me the key.” 

^‘The key? If I have to fight for it tooth and 
nail, I AAmn’t give it up.’ 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING KICH. 35 

‘‘Yv^on’t you take any tiling out of the chest 
without my consent ?” _ 

Well, that is to say, I Avon’t go extravagantly 
to work; but that T shan’t buy a few new clothes, 
and change my old earrings that I have worn so 
long for a rather better pair — are we not man 
and AAufe ? If I were to listen to you, we should 
be poorer than we AA^ere before. If you don’t get 
some enjoyment out of your money, you had better 
paint a quantity of ten-crown pieces on the Avail ; 
you AA^ould have the look of them all the same, 
and less trouble Avith them.” 

You don’t understand me. Trees. If you go 
noAV all at once and let out that Ave haA^e plenty of 
money, by Avearing clothes Avhich are beyond our 
station in life, the neighbors will begin to gossip 
about it, and ask hoAV Ave came by it. 

‘‘Well, and what matter if they do? The 
money belongs to me ; my forefathers haA^e lived 
in this house more than a hundred years. Be- 
sides, there Avas no money forthcoming after my 
father’s sudden death — he hadn’t time to say 
Avhere he had hidden it. And AA^hat harm would 
it be if everybody kneAv that I had found my in- 
heritance?” 

“ What harm, you senseless thing ? If the 
thieves came to knoAv that Ave have so much 
money, they would break into the house, steal the 
treasure, and murder us, perhaps.” 

“ How timid the sight of this money has made 
you ! I shouldn’t knoAV you again, Smet.” 


86 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


‘‘Yes; and then consider that people wouldn’t 
so easily believe ns if we said that we had found 
the money. God grant we may not have the 
police on our shoulders ; they may think it is 
stolen money. Then they would carry off the 
treasure to the police office, till the matter was 
properly inquired into. If the law once lays its 
hand on it, get it out again if you can ! Alas ! 
alas ! we should be eased of our treasure, and 
perhaps die in misery, after all.” 

“Indeed,” said the dame, anxiously, “I think 
you are right.” 

“ 0 Trees, Trees dear, do be a little prudent 
for once; be a little more reserved, and don’t tell 
anybody that we have become rich.” 

“Yes — if only I can be silent!” grumbled his 
wife, and she shrugged her shoulders. “I learned 
to talk from my mother,, and she didn’t let her 
tongue grow stiff for want of using.” 

“ Good heavens ! ’tis very unlucky !” 

“ If every rich man were like you, it would be 
unlucky indeed. But can’t we let the neighbors 
know that we have had a legacy? I have talked 
long enough about it, I’m sure.” 

A smile overspread the face of the chimney- 
sweeper, and his eyes sparkled with joyful sur- 
prise. He remained a while in great meditation, 
and then said — 

“ That we have had a legacy — but then people 
would know that we have plenty of money in the 
house.” 


/ 


THE HARNESS OF BEING RICH. 87 

‘‘Well?” 

“And the thieves?” . - 

“ Oh, you have lost your wits.” 

“i7o ; what do you think we will say? — that we 
shall soon get a legacy — that we have had tidings 
of your uncle in Holland — ” 

“ Of my aunt — that will be better ; and if I buy 
a bit of new clothes, or any little trifle, people will 
only think that we are using a little of our legacy 
beforehand.” 

“ Well, you see, that will do ; nobody will know 
that there is any money in the house, and every- 
body will allow that you are of a good family. 
But, Trees, you will be reasonable now, won’t you, 
and spare our money a little?” 

“ Come, now, our money — you mean my money. 
I won’t do more than our position requires.” 

“And we will tell Pauw the same story, or per- 
haps the lad might take a whim in his head, and 
turn spendthrift — ” 

“There — I hear him coming!” exclaimed the 
dame; “make haste and unbolt the door, or he 
will ask what is going on.” 

The chi mmey-s weeper sprang up, unlocked the 
door, and sat down again with a calm countenance 
at the table, as if nothing at all had happened. 

Outside the door, in the street, resounded the 
ditty — 

“ Schouwvegers gay, who live in A. B., 

Companions so jolly, 

All frolic and folly— » 

4 


38 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


and Paiiw came singing and capering into the 
room. 

Coming up to the table, he said, in a sprightly 
tone of voice, and talking very fast — 

Oh, bh, how we have laughed ! If I had 
missed such a bit of fun, I should cry out, for 
my mouth is sore with laughing. Only think, 
they have made me captain of the birdcatchers’ 
club 

Come, come, don’t make so much noise about 
it,” grumbled his father. 

‘^Oh, ’tisn’t about that, father,” joyously ex- 
claimed Pauw. You know, father, we had laid 
by some money to get a new flag made for our 
club ? The flne painter in the Winkel Street — 
him they call Rubens, because he wears a broad 
hat and mustaches — well, now, he was to paint a 
great owl on the flag. Oh, oh, that was a clever 
notion ! This evening, while we were sitting hav- 
ing a chat, all of a sudden he brought the new 
flag. We all jumped up, full of curiosity. Piet 
Kruls rolled the flag open ; we looked at one 
another — and then we all burst out into such a 
terrible fit of laughter that three or four of us fell 
down on the ground, and the others were forced 
to hold their sides. But there was one who cut a 


* There are at Antwerp clubs among the lower classes, the mem- 
bers of which lay by a little money regularly, in order to go bird- 
catching in the autumn with an owl. 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING BICH. 


39 


very sour face, and this was the smith. IsTow guess 
what was painted on the flag.” 

‘^Oh, always at your childish pranks,” said his 
mother. ‘‘What should there be on it? — why, an 
owl, I suppose.” 

“Yes, yes, an owl with a head as big as a 
child’s of eight years old ; but the fun of it was 
that the owl and the smith were as much alike as 
two drops of water. There was such a laughing 
and such a row! The smith wanted to drag out 
the painter by the hair of his head — the inn- 
keeper wanted to turn the smith out of doors; 
we wanted to make it all up; three pint stoups 
were broken and two hats crushed — at last, all 
ended in a good hearty laugh, for Rubens pro- 
mised to alter the owl. But what has come to 
you? You are not listening to me. Father is 
looking so solemn, and you, too, mother! You 
are not ill, I hope?” 

“It is no time for jesting now,” answered Dame 
Smet, in a very serious tone of voice. “Pauw, my 
lad, I want to tell you something : we are going 
to have a legacy!” 

“Again?” shouted the youth, with mocking un- 
belief. 

“This time it is true enough.” 

“ I know this song well of old. Of course, from 
my aunt in Holland ?” 

“Yes, from my aunt in Holland.” 

“ Come, come, mother, you have grown a little 
wiser now. It isn’t true, father, is it?” 


40 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


‘‘ It seems that it is true enough this time/' 
answered Master Smetj with a contirmatoiy nod of 
his head. 

^‘Ah, well/' cried Pauw, laughing, ^Hhen I be- 
speak a new" pair of breeches and a dozen shirt- 
collars, wdien the legacy comes !" 

Both his parents held their peace, and looked 
grave and solemn. Pauw looked from one to the 
other in amazement, and grumbled : 

‘^But, mother — but, father — yon sit there quite 
in the dumps about the good news; tell me what 
yon have heard.” 

“I have a headache,” answmred his father; 

talking wmrries me. I wdll tell you to-morrow 
W"hat w^e have reason to expect.” 

^^And 'tis my awifs legacy, which has been 
coming ever since — long before I came into the 
world ?” 

Yes, yes ; let us be quiet about it now.” 

Pauw shook his head doubtfully, and thought in 
himself — 

Something has turned up that they won’t tell 
me. People who get legacies look more merry 
-about it. Perhaps they have had some.wmrds; 
but I wmn’t bother myself about that.” 

He took the second lamp, lighted it, and then 
said — 

‘‘To-morrow I must get up early, at four o’clock, 
to go and sw^eep three chimneys at the Chateau van 
Ranst. It is a good twm hours’ w^alk from here — 
so good-night.” 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


41 


'‘^Paiiw,” said liis mother, with a significant 
pride in her voice, we are no longer schouw- 
vegers ! — and when you go out to-morrow put on 
your Sunday clothes, do you hear?” 

Look now, mother: don’t take it ill,” said the 
lad, with a smile, ^‘but that is going rather too far.” 

‘^And, anyhow, my lady’s servant has been to 
say that you are not to go to the chateau to- 
morrow.” 

That’s quite another thing. Then I shall get 
a good long sleep. To-morrow the legacy will be 
flown away up the chimney, just like the other 
times. Good-night, mother; a pleasant sleep, 
father.” 

He went up-stairs with light and merry step, 
and hummed quite audibly as he went — 

“ Schouwvegers gay, who live/in A. B., 

Companions so jolly, 

All frolic and folly—” 

Master Smet and his wife remained sitting be- 
low at least two hours longer. Whatever eftbrts 
the dame made to induce her husband to betake 
himself to rest, it seemed that he could not make 
up his mind to leave the place where his treasure 
lay. He had already tried all the doors and bolts 
over and over again, when it struck midnight. 
Then, after one more anxious and protracted 
scrutiny, he followed his wife up the stairs ; and 
still, as he went up, he turned his eyes, ten times 
at least, to the chest which contained his riches. 


42 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


CHAPTER m. 

The nerves of the chimney-sweeper were so 
much shaken by the finding of the treasure, that 
the poor man, exhausted and tired as he was, 
could not close his eyes. He turned from side to 
side, stretched himself out and yawned, then 
twisted his limbs about, and moaned with long 
respirations. His heart beat violently and irregu- 
larly ; every now and then he felt as if a stream 
of ice-cold water were being poured down his 
back. 

It happened at length that he wandered oft' into 
a light doze ; but at the moment when a man is 
passing from waking to sleeping life, his nerves 
are most quick and sensitive. The schouwveger 
could not pass this moment; every time the 
coming slumber broke the chain of his musings, 
he sprang up in his bed and listened with terror 
to some noise he fancied he had heard; and, 
indeed, the rats in the attic were rushing up and 
down, racing merrily one after another, or fighting, 
with loud squeaking and crying — -just as if they 
were still in the house of a poor man, whose 
slumbers are peaceful and sound, beyond reach of 
disturbance. 


t^Se happiness oe being high. 43 

It might be that he had at length, after long twist- 
ing and turning, got fairly off, for he snored very 
loud. Gradually his breathing became oppressed^ 
and assumed a tone expressive of suffering, as though 
Master Smet were tormented by unseen spirits. 
The sweat of anguish stood in beads on his fore- 
head; all his limbs were Violently contracted. 

Suddenly the struggling words broke forth from 
his constricted breast, and he shouted, in a tone of 
distress — Ho, no ! it isn’t true : I have no money ! 
Oh ! oh ! let me go ! let me go !” 

His wife, roused from her sleep, seized her hus- 
band by the arm, gave him a vigorous shake, and 
exclaimed — 

Eh, Smet, what are you up to now ? Is the 
nightmare astride of you ? or are you out of your 
mind ?” 

The husband stared in horror all round the dusky 
room, and groaned and shuddered : 

Oh, dear me ! where am I ? Good heavens ! I 
thought I was dead ! Ts that you. Trees ?” 

Why, who on earth should it be ? ’Tis all your 
snoring. You lie there wriggling and twisting 
like an eel on a gridiron. ’Tis easy enough to see 
that you are not used to money. It doesn’t hinder 
me from sleeping, though I am so uncommonly 
glad ; but, you see, I am of a good family.” 

^^Oh, Trees!” moaned Master Smet, wiping the 
cold, clammy perspiration from his forehead, ‘‘ oh, 
Ti'ees, what I have suffered is not to be described ! 
Only fancy: I w^as scarcely asleep, when something 
0 


44 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING HIGH, 


came all of a sudden and sat down on my cliest, 
and I felt as if it was trying to crush in my heart 
with its knees. It had its claws fastened in my 
neck, and squeezed my throat all up together^ 
I couldn’t make out at first what it was; but it was 
like a wild beast, with long black hair, and it had a 
great knife in its paw. It wanted to make me tell 
where the money was; and because I wouldn’t, 
it gripped my throat, and was going to stick the 
knife into my heart. I felt I was dying; then my 
eyes seemed to open, and I screamed with terror 
when I saw what it was. Oh, Trees, I tremble now 
only to think of it: it was a thief, a murderer!” 

^‘Come, come, leave oft* your boyish tricks!” 
said his wife, jestingly. Why will you lie with 
your arm under your head ? ’Tis that gives you 
the nightmare. ’Tis very late: just try to go 
asleep, and don’t disturb me any more. Now, a 
good rest to you !” 

In a few minutes Dame Smet was fast asleep 
again. 

The luckless schouwveger was not so fortunate. 
He made no effort to fall asleep again, for his fright 
had taken away all inclination to rest. For full 
half an hour he lay, with his eyes wide open, 
staring at the darkness, and dreaming, though 
broad awake, of policemen and of thieves, so thal 
at length he jumped out of bed and dressed, with- 
out making any noise. 

Then he went, creeping along on the tips of his 
toes, to the place where he knew that a table stood, 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


45 


and felt over it with his hand, searching for some- 
thing. A sigh of glad surprise escaped him, when 
he discovered his wife’s pocket. He took out the 
bey of the chest, and went down the stairs with 
slow and cautious steps. 

When he reached the room below, he lighted 
a little lamp, went to the chest, opened it, gazed 
a while upon the money with an ecstatic smile, 
then locked the chest again, and sat down with his 
head on his hands and his elbows upon the table. 

After a little silence, he began musing aloud : 

‘‘Ha! there it lies all safe. Ha! to be rich — to 
have money — what bliss ! But, after all, it brings 
care and trouble with it, and it breaks one’s 
night’s rest, somehow. My wife has such grand 
notions ; she wants to live in a big house, to wear 
rich clothes, to buy gold and cyamonds ! Pauw is 
young ; he’ll want to play the young gentleman, 
and spend a good deal ; and so they’ll make my 
poor money cut a pretty figure ! It will melt 
away like snow in the sunshine — and at last — 
yes, at last— I shall have to lie upon straw in my 
old age, and perhaps go a-begging for my daily* 
bread !” 

This thought filled him with alarm ; he pressed 
his hands forcibly against his head, and remained 
a moment staring, with a pale and bloodless face, 
into vacancy. Then he continued : 

“ Oh, what a misfortune to have a wife who 
can’t keep her tongue still in her head ! Early to- 
morrow morning, by daybreak at least, she will be 
0 


46 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


running about among her neighbors, and gossip- 
ing and boasting that she is going to have a legacy. 
Thousands won’t be enough for her ; she’ll talk of 
millions. Everybody will be full of it; all over 
the city people will be talking about the schouw- 
veger who has so suddenly become rich. The 
thieves will be lurking about our house, .and then 
one of these fine nights they will be making oft* 
with the treasure! I shall be poor again — poor 
again ! Oh, my God 1 what anxiety and misery 
a rich man has to bear 1” 

After a little pause, he continued his musings : 

It is odd I I was as lively as a fish in the 
water : men called me Jan-Grap, because I was so 
full of fun. I knew nothing of sorrow or anxiety; 
all that God sent me was dear to me ; I sang, 
I danced, I laughed — I thought there was no king 
so happy as I was I And now ? Now I shake 
at the least puff of wind ; I am afraid of myself 
and of everybody else ; I can’t sleep — my heart is 
thumping and knocking as if something terrible 
was going to happen to me. I shall get better 
soon ; I shall get used to my riches. And if I 
don’t laugh or dance any more, ’tis quite natural : 
a rich man must look grave and stately ; it doesn’t 
become him to be laughing and joking. A body 
can’t have all sorts of happiness at once ; and to 
be rich is, after all, the greatest.” 

This last consideration seemed to infuse some 
consolation into his heart; for he smiled, and 
rubbed his hands, and mumbled some words of 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


47 


gladness and content. In this mood, a new thought 
struck him, and he said, in a quieter and more 
gracious tone — 

“ When I was only a paltry craftsman, I helped 
the poor widow round the corner as far as I could. 
I felt so much pity for her unlucky little lambs of 
children, that I often wished to he rich that I might 
raise her out of her distress. Her husband — God 
rest his soul ! — was my best friend ; and I promised 
him on his death-bed that I would care for his 
children. Well, now I am rich. Won’t I keep 
my promise ? Ha, yes ! to do good, to be tender- 
hearted, to help one’s neighbor ! How — now I feel 
what a happiness it is to be rich! Well, what 
shall I give the poor widow? Fifty crowns? 
That’s too much : they would spend it in extrava- 
gance ; and if I go to work like that, my gold will 
soon come to an end. Who knows if I shouldn’t 
make her ungrateful ? Suppose, now, I give her 
ten crowns ? I think that’s enough. They have 
never seen so much money in their lives. It 
doesn’t do to give poor people too much at once ; 
they are not used to it, and they become greedy 
and lazy, when they come by it so easily. One 
mustn’t encourage begging.” 

The schouwveger relapsed into silence, and 
seemed lost in meditation. Suddenly an expres- 
sion of alarm and contempt spread itself over his 
countenance. 

‘‘But, Jan, my lad,” said he, in a tone of dis- 
gust and reproof, “ when you were poor and had 


48 


THE HAPPINESS OE BEING RICH. 


to save out of your day’s wages, you gave them a 
great deal more than that, by little' and little ! 
Sometimes you put into the widow’s hand the 
cents you were going to spend on your dailj^ glass 
of beer ; and, to make her happy, you stayed at 
home all the evening without seeing your friends. 
What a horrid thought ! Can riches make a man 
miserly and unpitying? Really, I feel something 
that horrifies me. Oh, no, no! away with selfish- 
ness ! I will put aside the fifty crowns for the 
widow, and allow her something regularly every 
week out of it. Perhaps God will reward me, by 
making my wealth sit easier on me, and delivering 
me from the strange alarm which makes me shake 
all over.” 

He rose up slowly, cast a scrutinizing look 
round the room, and opened the chest. He stood 
a while in silence, gazing on the heap of money, 
the gold and silver pieces of which glittered before 
his eyes like a cluster of stars. He then took out 
seven ten-crown pieces, put them in his waistcoat- 
pocket, and muttered to himself, in a joyous tone 
of voice — 

I’ll just put two more to them ; the poor widow 
is so very miserable, and it does me so much good 
— the thought that I shall help the children of my 
friend!” 

Still gazing at his treasure, he fell into a silent 
reverie, and appeared to be calculating in his mind 
how much the heap of gold might amount to. 

Suddenly, as if he had come to some conclusion, 


THE HAPPINESS OP BEING RICH. 


49 


he began to scrape together a large number of gold 
pieces out of the treasure. When he had occupied 
himself a while in this way, he went to the table, 
and counted them over. ‘‘Fifty pieces,’' said he, 
pondering deeply — “ fifty pieces make five hundred 
crowns ; and five hundred Dutch crowns make 
about a thousand and fifty francs. This sum I’ll hide 
away somewhere, where neither my wife nor my 
son will be able to find it. If any misfortune 
should happen to me, if thieves or gendarmes' 
should come, or if my wife should squander the 
treasure, this would still remain for our Pauw; 
and if he were to marry Katie, there would still 
be something left to set them up in housekeeping, 
and enable them to open a little shop.” 

He rolled up the money in a rag, went over to 
the mantel-piece, drew forward a chair, and, stand- 
ing on it, thrust his head as far as he could into 
the chimney. He placed the pieces of money on 
some projecting stones inside the chimney, and 
felt secure that no one would think of searching 
there for them. Then, jumping down into the 
room again, he said, with a contented smile— 

“ Ha, now my mind is a little easier; now I shall 
be able to sleep.” 

He was just about to blow out the lamp and go 
up-stairs, when he suddenly checked himself, and 
began to tremble with alarm. He fancied he heard 
somebody trying to break open the window from 
the outside ; and, indeed, there was a sound as of 
a man’s hand touching the shutters. 

5 


50 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


The terrified schoHwveger fixed his eyes upon 
the window, and was so paralyzed by fear that the 
lamp shook in his hand ; when, to his great relief, 
ho heard the sound of steps retreating from the 
window, and a hoarse voice singing in snatches — 


“We were so jolly, and we tarried so long — 
Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la !” 


‘^Oh, the drunken rascal!’' growled Master 
Smet. ‘MIe little thinks that he has half killed 
me with fright — the noisy vagabond ! The police 
are fit for nothing 1 Anyhow, ’tis the rich people 
that pay the police ; why don’t they at least take 
care that rich people may be able to get a little 
sleep?” 

After listening some time longer at the wdndow, 
he blew the lamp out, crept softly up-stairs, put 
the key of the chest again into his wife’s pocket, 
and lay down on the bed without undressing. 

At last he fell asleep, and dozed for, it might 
be, half an hour, without any other signs of rest- 
lessness than an occasional contraction of his arms 
and legs. 

All of a sudden there was a loud noise in the 
attic, as if something heavy had fallen on the floor. 
The schouwveger started with terror from his 
sleep, jumped up from his bed in consternation, 
and ran against a chair so violently that he over- 
turned it, and it fell on the floor with a loud noise. 

Thereupon liis wife started up, and exclaimed 
angrily— 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


51 


‘‘But, Smet, are you possessed, that you are 
playing such pranks in the dark?- What’s the 
matter with you now?” 

“ Oh, Trees, thieves !” groaned he, with choking 
voice. “Where is the sabre ?” 

“Come, come, you are dreaming again,” said 
his wife, with a sneer. “Do you think the thieves 
can smell out money ?” 

“They are up in the attic; listen, listen!” 
whispered the schouwveger, pointing upward, 
with his hair on end, and pale as a sheet. And 
truly heavy steps were heard on the stairs, and 
soon some one knocked loudly at the door of the 
chamber. 

Beside himself with fright. Master Smet threw 
up the window that looked out on the street, and 
screamed, with all his might — 

“ Help, help I thieves ! murder !” 

And in order to arouse his neighbors the more 
effectually, he added to his cry of distress the 
alarming words, “ Fire ! fire !” 

He saw in the distance two persons who were 
running at full speed down the street, attracted by 
his screams. 

A voice cried anxiously at the chamber-door — 

“ Father, father, open the door ! Is the house 
on fire?” 

“Oh, you fool!” muttered Dame Smet; “it is 
Pauw. “Let him in; you’ll frighten the lad out 
of his wits.” 

“Where — where is the fire?” asked Pauw, 


52 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


in consternation, as soon as the door was 
opened. 

‘^It is nothing, nothing at all; I was onJy 
dreaming,” stammered his father, 

‘^Ila, I wish I knew what was going on !” said 
the lad, in perplexity. It seems to me that our 
house has been haunted all night long; I haven’t 
been able to sleep a wink. Overhead the rats are 
at work as if they were mad ; down here I hear 
talking going on, chairs tumbling about, cries of 
murder and tire ; and when I run down, with quak- 
ing heart, I find there is nothing at all the matter! 
Look you, father: don’t be angry with me, but it 
seems to me as if j^ou were busy playing Punch 
and Judy.” 

The schouwveger had sunk into a chair, and 
sobbed aloud, overcome by the fright he had ex- 
perienced. The silence lasted a short time, during 
which Pauw stood awaiting an answer, with amaze- 
ment increasing eveiy moment. 

‘‘If I am not to know,” he muttered, “I won’t 
ask any more about it; but, father, what will the 
neighbors say ? Heaven knows, you have roused 
up more than fifty of them out of their beds with 
your frightful cry of, ‘Fire, fire I’ ” 

“Your father was dreaming,” said Dame Smet: 
“ he can’t get the legacy out of his head. Go to 
bed again, Pauw.” 

“ What’s that I hear now ?” moaned the schouw- 
veger, in fresh surprise. 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


53 


The street seemed to shake beneath the rumbling 
of heavy wheels, coming at a great pace. 

Oh, his the artillerymen going with their guns 
to the camp at Brasschaet,” said Pauw; ^^but his 
odd they should come through our street.’' 

‘^What can it be?” exclaimed Dame Smet; 
they are stopping at our door I” 

Pauw opened the window, gave a look into the 
street, and, turning round into the room again, 
said, with a loud laugh — 

‘^A\^ell, here’s a joke! ’tis the fire-brigade, with 
all their engines and pipes I” 

There was a tremendous knocking at the door ; 
every blow echoed distressingly through the heart 
of the schouwveger, who lay so crushed by his 
terror that he was unable to utter a word. 

Pauw thrust his head out of the window again, 
and asked the men who were thundering with all 
their might at the door. ‘‘Holloa! what’s the 
matter down there ? Go about your business, and 
let folks sleepTn peace !” 

“Where is the fire?” exclaimed a voice. 
“Where is the fire?” repeated Pauw. “Why, 
in the oven of oily Schram, the baker, to be sure ; 
it’s eight houses off, on the right-hand side of the 
way, close to the green-grocer’s.” 

“Pll teach you how to cut your jokes up there!” 
said the sergeant of the fire-brigade. “Open the 
door this minute, or I’ll break it open by force !” 

“Don’t put yourself in a passion" sergeant,” 
said one of the firemen; “’tis Pauwken-Plezier ; 

5 * 


54 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


and if he tried to speak otherwise, the funny rogue 
couldn’t do it for his life. Just let me manage 
him.” 

He went under the window, and called out — 

‘‘Pauwken, has there been any fire in the 
house ?” 

^^Yes, there’s a fire every day, an hour before 
dinner.” 

Yo tricks, now, Pauwken. I was just coming 
through the street with my comrade, and your 
father was screaming, ‘Fire, fire I’ as if the whole 
parish was in flames.” 

“Yes, it was my father, talking in his sleep; he 
was only dreaming aloud!” 

The sergeant now broke out in a towering pas- 
sion : 

“ Come, come — I’ll teach you to make fools of 
the police I Corporal, run and call the commis- 
sary ; we will break open the door, and fine the 
insulting scoundrels.” 

The word commissary struck on the ear of the 
schouwveger; he started up, and cried out at the 
window, with a beseeching voice — 

“ Oh, firemen, my good fellows, have patience 
only a minute; I’ll run down and open the door.” 

lie left the chamber, followed by his son. As 
they descended the stairs, he groaned, with tremu- 
lous voice — 

“ Pauw, my boy, our house is bewitched I Oh, 
no\y, all thc^ fire-brigade will come in. I am more 
dead than alive ; I am quite ill with — ” 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


56 


‘‘But, father, the firemen won’t eat us all up, 
surely?” said the young man. 

“Ah, you don’t know, child, what your father 
will have to put up with!” moaned Master Smet, 
in a dejected tone» “Pauw, they will search the 
house all over, to see where the fire was. Since 
we can’t help it now, you lead them round, for I 
can’t stand on my legs.” 

The young man unlocked the door, while his 
father placed a chair close to the chest in which 
his treasure lay, and sank down on it, exhausted 
and breathless. 

Five or six firemen then entered the room. 
The sergeant recognised the young wag, and 
seized him in a threatening manner by the 
shoulder, exclaiming — 

“ Ha, you young vagrant, you’ll make sport of 
the fire-brigade, will you ? How will you like to 
sit in the stocks, eh ?” 

Pauw sprang back, and cried, with a loud laugh — ■ 

“ Look you. Mynheer Fireman, talk of the stocks 
as much as you like ; but I am a free man ; and 
if you dare to lay your hands on me. I’ll teach 
you. how to run, though I’m only a schouwveger, 
and don’t wear a copper hat.” 

Seeing that Pauw was awkward flax to spin a 
good thread out of, the sergeant turned to Master 
Smet, and asked, angrily — 

“ Tell me, where’s the fire ?” 

“Well, my good man, it is a mistake; there 
has been no fire here.” 


56 


THE HAPPINESS OP BEING RICH. 


Ha, you want to conceal it, to escape paying 
the fine.’ ” 

Oh, no ; I thank you ten thousand times for 
all your trouble : there has been no fire here.” 

‘‘And you frighten folks by shouting, ‘Fire, 
fire!”’ 

“Yes, a man has odd dreams sometimes,” 
stammered the schouwveger. “Just look at me, 
sergeant; I’m all of a shake; my nerves are out 
of order.” 

“ Get up,” said the sergeant, imperatively, “and 
let us see all the chimneys.” 

“I can’t stand up,” moaned the schouwveger, 
with a voice of entreaty, “My legs sink under 
me. Pauw, go round with Mynheer.” 

The sergeant made a sign to the corporal that 
he should follow the young man. Then he said 
to Master Smet — 

“You sit there by your chest as if you were 
afraid we were going to steal your money!” 

A shudder ran through all the limbs of the 
schouwveger, and a cold perspiration stood on his 
forehead. 

“You shall pay dear for your jest,” continued 
the sergeant ; “you’ll have to pay the fine.” 

“Is that all?” muttered the poor terror-stricken 
Smet. “ Make me pay the fine two or three times 
over, if you like ; only, for God’s sake, get out of 
my house !” 

Dame Smet, who had dressed herself in the 
mean time, now came into the room with a smil- 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


57 


ing countenance ; and, as soon as she saw how the 
matter stood, she said in an easy tone to the chief 
of the fire-brigade — 

Sergeant, here’s an odd aftair. Don’t be vexed 
about it ; it was quite unintentional. I’ll tell you 
all about it. You must know that we have had 
news of my aunt in Holland.” 

The schouwveger stretched out his hand with 
a gesture of entreaty to implore his wife to be 
silent; but she paid no attention to him, and 
went on : 

‘‘We are to have a legacy — I don’t know how 
many thousand crowns. This news has come so 
suddenly on my husband that he has a fever in his 
brain — poor man ! He has been dreaming that 
the house was on fire; but you see, my fine fel- 
lows, I don’t wish you to have all your trouble for 
nothing. Drink a pint to our health, and be 
assured that we are very grateful to you for your 
promptitude and kindness.” 

With these words, she put a five-franc piece 
into his hand. 

At this moment Pauw came down-stairs with 
the corporal. The latter advanced to the sergeant, 
brought his hand to his policeman’s cap in mili- 
tary fashion, and said, in a pompous tone — 

“ Sergeant, there has been no fire in the house.” 

After sundry admonitions not to dream so loud 
another time, the fire-brigade left the abode of the 
schouwveger. His wife thereupon shut the door 
and locked it after them. 


58 


TPIE HAPPINESS OF BEING HIGH. 


Raising his hands, the schouwveger said, with a 
sigh — 

^^Good heavens! if poor men only knew what a 
bother it is to be rich, they would never wish it. 
Here is a fine business 

Dame Smet took him by the shoulder, and, 
pushing him toward the stairs, said, half in anger 
and half in scorn — 

‘^Yes, a pretty mess you make of every thing. 
I ought to be vexed with you, but I pity your 
childish fancies. To-morrow we’ll talk it all over. 
Go and sleep now, Zebedeus ; and if you must 
dream of thieves and gendarmes, try to dream 
quietly. Money has made a fine fellow of you ! 
Look at him, how" he stands there like an idiot 
with the palsy 1” 

Without speaking a word, thoroughly crushed 
down and beside himself with the fright he had 
experienced, the poor schouwveger turned and 
slowly mounted the stairs to his bed-room. 


CHAPTER IV. 

The morning after these noctural freaks. Dame 
Bmet was on her legs betimes, and ran off to the 
corner shop to chatter and gossip about my aunt in 
Holland and the grand legacy they were going 
to have ; and when the wife of the grocer ventured 
to express, with some scorn, her disbelief of Dame 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


59 


Smet’s oft- repeated story, the latter took out of 
her pocket a handful of gold-pieces and laid them 
on the counter, as vouchers for the truth of what 
she said. Thereupon the four or five dames who 
were in the shop at ,the same time lifted up their 
hands, and cried out in amazement, as if they had 
been favored with a sight of all the treasures of 
California. 

Half an hour later, not a single person in the 
neighborhood could plead ignorance of the fact 
that Jan-Grap, the chimney-sweeper, had got a 
legacy of three huge hags of gold. Everybody 
was making inquiries, and everybody was giving 
answers ; so that in a very short time Jan was 
endowed by the liberality of his neighbors with 
more than a hundred houses, and about twenty 
ships at sea. 

While Dame Smet was running all over the city 
to visit the magazins des modes, and to give her 
orders to a celebrated milliner, Pauw remained at 
home, at her request, to await the appearance of 
his father, who was somewhat indisposed by his 
night’s adventures. 

And now Dame Smet had been about a quarter 
of an hour at home ; she was standing before the 
looking-glass, admiring the brilliance of the huge 
golden pendants she had suspended to her ears. 

Pauw came down-stairs at the same moment, 
and, in reply to a question of his mother’s, he 
said — 

^‘Father isn’t sick: he is out of sorts, and worn 
p 


60 


THE HAPPINESS OP BEING RICH. 


out by the strange adventures of the night ; but 
he’ll be down in less than an hour.” 

‘‘Well, Pauw, just look at me,” she exclaimed, 
exultingly; “what do you think of these ear-rings? 
Don’t they suit me famously ?” 

The young man looked at his mother. The im- 
pression which the jewels made upon him could 
not have been most favorable, for he shrugged 
his shoulders, and replied, with a smile — 

“I don’t know, mother; but the ear-rings under 
your plaited cap look as if they had lost their way 
somehow.” 

“Now, now, wait a little; w^e will soon mend 
that,” said the dame, “Only wait a few days, 
and your mother will come out in such style that 
you shall see whether any my lady on the Meir 
can compare with her ! She will wear a chapeau 
with feathers in it, a velvet pelerine^ a purple silk 
gown, and coffee-colored boots ! And then she 
will promenade up and down the street, with a 
darling little parasol in her hand, so grand and so 
stately that . everybody shall see of what a good 
family I am.” 

“ Well, if there is no remedy for it.” said Pauw, 
sighing, and shaking his head, “for God’s sake, 
mother, go and live somewhere else ; for such a 
grand my lady in our little schouwveger’s den will 
be enough to make me swear awfully. I don’t 
feel inclined, mother, to be pointed at all my life 
long and laughed at by everybody.” 

“ Patience, patience, Pauw !” answered the happy 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING PvICH. 


61 


dame. ‘^Your father won’t change houses yet; 
he has his reasons. But only let us get the legacy, 
my boy ! I’ve got such a beautiful house in my 
eye ; that large jporte-cochere on the St. James’s 
market !” 

^‘Do you know what I’m thinking, mother?” 
asked the young man, with a sad smile. “I’m 
thinking that all three of us are out of our senses ; 
and as for the legacy, if I had ten crowns in my 
pocket, I wouldn’t give them for the egg that isn’t 
laid yet!” 

“ Ha 1 you wouldn’t give ten crowns for it, 
eh?” exclaimed his mother. “Look, there’s 
something like a proof for you, you unbelieving 
Thomas !” 

Pauw sprang back in astonishment, and kept 
his dazzled eyes fixed on the handful of gold-pieces 
which his mother had taken out of her pocket and 
held before his face with an exulting laugh. 

“Well, now, what do you say to 'that?” asked 
she. “ Have you ever seen so much money in all 
your life before? Are these only clouds driven 
before the wind, as your father was saying ?” 

But the lad could not speak; he did nothing 
but stare at the gold-pieces. 

“Have you lost your tongue?” said his mother, 
jestingly. “You stand there as if you had seen 
something uncanny 1” 

“Whew!” said Pauw, quite bewildered ; “well 
I may, when you deal me such a stunning blow as 
that!” 


p 


62 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING KICH. 


And this handful of gold is only a trifle com- 
pared with what we shall have.” 

Well, mother, mother dear, are we then really 
rich ?” 

‘•Rich as Jews, Pauw !” 

“ Ha, ha ! what a life we’ll have ! And Katie, 
poor thing, she’ll be out of her senses with joy!” 

He began then to cut some extraordinary capers, 
and sang out cheerily — 

“ Schouwvegers gay, who live in A. B. — ” 

But his mother placed her hand on his mouth 
and stopped his song, by saying, in a tone of 
rebuke — 

“Fie, Pauw I singing a poor man’s song — a low 
song ! You must learn to behave like a lad who 
is of a good family.” 

“ You are right, mother,” stammered Pauw, in 
confusion ; “ I must make another little song — ” 

“ Ko, no ; no more singing or jumping about. A 
rich man must be grave and solemn.” 

This seemed to disconcert Pauw a little. 

“ Then mustn’t I be merry any more ?” he 
asked. 

“Yes, yes, on the sly — ^^vhen you are by your- 
self ; and if you like to toss off a good flask when 
nobody sees you, the neighbors can’t talk about 
it. That’s the way rich men manage.” 

“ When I’m by myself I Do you fancy, mother, 
I drink beer for the sake of drinking ? Why, if 
I had no friends with me, I’d a great deal rather 
drink water.” 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


63 


^‘Beer, beer! rich men don’t drink beer; they 
don’t care for any thing but wine.” 

. “And I don’t like wdne.” 

“ Oh, you’ll soon learn to like it. But the fiist 
thing you have to learn is to leave off your loose 
way of w^alking up the street, and your joking and 
quizzing.” 

“But mustn’t I laugh any more, then ?” 

“In the street ? JSTo, certainly not. You must 
carry your head up in the air, hold yourself upright, 
and look stiff and stern.” 

“As if I was always vexed with everybody?” 

“JSTo, as if you were always abstracted and full 
of thought. There’s nothing so vulgar as laughing 
and being merry.” 

“ I don’t quite fancy that. ’Tisn’t worth while 
to be rich, if you can’t have some pleasure out of 
your money ! 

Dame Smet sat down majestically at the table, 
as if she were going to say something very im- 
portant and memorable. 

“Pauw,” said she, “just sit down a minute. 
I have something to say to you. You have 
sense enough to take my meaning. ^ Like seeks 
like’—” 

“Yes, and the devil ran away with the chimney- 
sweeper — at least, so the proverb goes on to say.” 

“Don’t joke now, Pauw; and listen attentively 
to wlmt I have to say. ‘Like seeks like.’ What 
would you say if you saw the son of a baron marry 
the daughter of a drysalter ?” 


64 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


I should think it odd.’' 

Don’t you think, Pauw, now Ave are so rich, 
that people would think it a disgrace if you were 
to marry a poor girl?” 

The lad trembled with fear. 

‘^Heavens! mother, what are you driving at?” 
he exclaimed, anxiously. 

Look noAv, Pauw. The shoemaker’s Katie is a 
good and virtuous lass ; I have not a word to say 
against her. And if we had remained poor people, 
you would have been married to her before the 
year is out ; — but now — you see the whole city 
would laugh at us.” 

Well, let them laugh, if they like,” said Pauw, 
firmly. ‘^I’d rather be a chimney-sweep with 
Katie than a baron with anybody else ; — and look 
you, mother, you mustn’t harp on this string, or 1 
shall be as cross as a turnpike-gate.” 

Dame Smet put on a cunning expression, and 
said, in her blandest and most insinuating tone — 
^^But, Pauw, don’t you think that Leocadie, in 
the corner shop there, over the way, is a comelj" 
lass? Black eyes — fine figure — ralways so well 
dressed — and such nice free manners ; and there’s 
heaps of money there, Pauw ! If you would only 
set your cap at her, noAV — ” 

^‘Well, bless my soul!” exclaimed the lad. 
‘‘ Leocadie 1 that pale shrimp of a girl, with her 
ribbons and her curls 1 why, she’s a walking per- 
fumer’s shop ; I wouldn’t have her if she was 
the king’s OAvn daughter. She is ahvays parle 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


65 


franse with, those mincing rascals. ITo, no, I 
won’t have such a weathercock as that; when I 
marry, I’ll take care that my wife is really my 
wife.” 

‘‘What!” cried his mother, “are you not 
ashamed to sit there and dare to take avray the 
good name of people who have four houses, all 
their own property?” 

“I don’t want to take away any thing, mother; 
only I won’t hear you speak of that gilded grass- 
hopper.” 

“Well, suppose you have no liking for Leocadie, 
— you shan’t marry Katie !” 

“Ko?” 

“Ko!” 

“Well, then, I won’t be a rich man — not 1 1” 

“You will wait till we are in our proper posi- 
tion ; and then some mamsel or other — ” 

“ Some mamsel ? I shouldn’t know how to talk 
to them. No, no ; I won’t have anybody but Katie ! 
Father has promised me already that he would 
take care - 1 married Katie ; and he said, too, 
that we should have such a merry, such a jolly 
wedding.” 

“Father will change his mind when he is a 
little used to being rich. You must forget Katie, 
I tell you.” 

“I cannot forget her — I don’t want to forget 
her — and I won’t forget her ! Such a dear, good 
child ! she would die for her Pauw, if necessary — 
and I am to break her heart and despise her, now 
6 * 


66 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING KICK. 


we are rich ! If I thought I could ever dream of 
sucli a thing, I would dash my head against the 
wall there.” 

don’t wish you to see her any more,” in- 
sisted his mother. 

Father has told me to go and see her this 
morning, that she might not hear about our legacy 
from anybody but me.” 

‘^Ha! then you are a little too late there; half 
the city knows it already.” 

^^But, mother,” said Pauw, with a voice of 
tender entreaty, you must still have a heart ? 
Only think now, you have regarded Katie as your 
daughter these five or six years past; you have 
loved her as your own child. She loved you, too, 
so much that we were often forced to laugh at her; 
it was always ^Mother dear, this,’ and ^Mother 
dear, that;’ the ground wasn’t good enough for 
you to set your foot on. When she was here to 
keep you company, there was never a door opened 
but Katie jumped up to shut it, for fear you should 
catch cold ; she watched your eyes to divine your 
wishes — and no wonder: the dear child has no 
mother of her own ! When you were ill for more 
than three months, I am sure she cried three 
days at a stretch. Every morning she went to the 
church to pray for you ; she watched whole nights 
long by your bedside; and when your illness be- 
came dangerous, she shed such floods of tears, and 
was in such a state of grief, that the neighbors 
hardly knew which to pity most, you or poor 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 67 

Katie. I always loved Katie ; but since I found 
out that she would have given her life for yours, I 
have loved her ten times more. I have quite a 
reverence for her ; and all the mamsels in the city 
put together are not wmrth my Katie ! — Oh, don’t 
punish her for her goodness ! She would break 
her heart and die — and you, mother, you would 
lav her in her coffin as the recompense of her 
love !” 

The tears flowed fast from the young man’s 
eyes as he spoke these words. Before he had half 
finished, his mother became so deeply aftected 
that she had bent her head down to conceal her 
emotion. Wiping her face with her hands, she 
cried out — 

‘‘Pauw, lad, leave oft* do; you would fetch 
tears out of a ftint. Where did you get your 
words from ? It is all quite true ; the poor child 
would pine away. And she has never shown us 
any thing but pure, disinterested kindness and 
affection. It is a pity things should turn out so : 
she is not a girl fit for your station in life ; but, 
rich or not rich, we are human beings still, and 
have hearts. Come, come, run off to Katie ; fine 
clothes will help to set her off, and I will do my 
best to teach her good manners.” 

‘^Oh, mother, thanks, thanks!” shouted Pauw, 
intoxicated with joy. Do with me whatever you 
like. If I must mount spectacles, and wear yellow 
gloves, and set everybody laughing at me, I don’t 
care, if only you won’t vex Katie.’' 


68 


THE HAPPINESS OE BEING RICH. 


He rose up, and was leaving the house. 

‘‘Pauw, hold your head up!” said his mother, 
authoritatively. A rich man doesn’t wear a cap 
like that ; and here is a satin neckerchief for you, 
with red and blue stripes. Come to the glass, 
and I’ll put it on for you.” 

With whatever vexatron the young schouwveger 
might regard the gaudy colors of the satin, there 
was no help for it; so he meekly and patiently 
allowed the magnificent neckerchief to be tied 
round his neck; then he sprang out of the door, 
with a joyous farewell to his mother. 

She called after him, reprovingly — 

‘^Pauw, Panw, no skipping and jumping; be- 
have yourself soberly, as becomes your position in 
life 1” 

The sunny side of the street was, as usual, 
crowded with young lace-stitch workers, enticed 
from their close rooms by the beauty of the 
weather ; and among them were most of the old 
dames of the street, basking in the sun and stitch- 
ing away at their children’s clothes. 

To please his mother, Pauw had altered his 
whole bearing, and stalked majestically along, 
with his head erect, and a conscious stateliness 
about his whole person. 

As soon as he came in sight of the girls, all ran 
up and looked at him with their eyes wide open, 
and with an expression of wonder and even of 
awe, as if a miracle had taken place before their 
faces. 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


69 


This general observation annoyed Pauw exces- 
sively. His face glowed with the crimson of shame ; 
and his head began to feel as if it were a pin- 
cushion, and the girls were filling it with pins. 
He made great eftbrts to vanquish his emotion; 
and, going up to the girls who were sitting not far 
from the shoemaker’s door, he said, in an ap- 
parently unembarrassed tone of voice — 

Why, Annemieken, what are you cutting such 
a face of wonder as that for ? Do you fanpy I am 
an elephant or a shark? Eh, you, yonder!” 
shouted he to a group of dames who were staring 
at him with their necks stretched out, what’s the 
matter with you ?” 

Ho one laughed ; there was a considerable inter- 
val before even Annemie ventured to say to him, 
with a deferential manner and a quiet voice — 

‘^Mynheer Pauw, I wish you good luck; but I 
am vexed, after all.” 

Vexed ! — why ?” 

Why, the street will be so dull, now that the 
merry Pauw is become a rich Mynheer, and is go- 
ing to live on the Meir.” 

‘‘Come, now, have done with your mynheers; I 
am Pauwken-Plezier, just as I was before.” 

At this moment an aged man passed by, quite 
bowed beneath the weight of years ; he took off* 
his hat to Pauw, bared his head silvered with age, 
and said, with an imploring smile on his counte- 
nance — 

^ “ Mynheer Srnet, if you please, may I speak a 


70 THE HAPPINESS OF BEING KICH. 

word with you ? Do not take it amiss, I pray yon, 
that I make so bold.” 

The young man began to blush to the very roots 
of his hair, and exclaimed, impatiently — 

Come, Father Mieris, you are cutting your 
jokes at me, too, are you? Give me your hand; 
how goes your health ?” 

The old man smiled gratefully at the warm 
pressure of Pauw’s hand. 

‘^It is too great an honor. Mynheer Smet,” con- 
tinued he; have *a small request to make of 
you. My daughter Susanna, you know her well.” 

‘^Know her? Of course I do; a good and tidy 
lass.” 

‘‘ She is an ironing girl. Mynheer Pauw, and 
works as hard and as well as the best. I am come 
to ask your good word with my lady your mother, 
that she might not forget us, and let us earn a few 
sous ; for times are hard now, and bread is so — ” 

Pauw was quite bewildered by this time; his 
head began to turn round and round. 

Yes, yes; all right!” said he, interrupting the 
old man; ‘‘1 will do it. But let me alone with all 
your mynheers and my ladies. The whole quarter 
will be in the madhouse soon, I think.” 

Terrified at this outburst, the old man shrank 
timidly back, and went away with sad and down- 
cast eyes. 

“Katie is shoe-binding, I suppose?” inquired 
Pauw of the girls. 

“Yes, Katie, poor creature!” sighed Annemie, 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


71 


with a look of deep compassion, she is most to 
be pitied. If she survive it, it will be a great 
blessing.” 

The schouwveger became pale as death, and 
stepped toward the shoemaker’s door, without 
further remark. 

He found the girl sitting near the little window 
that looked out into the street. She had her 
apron before her eyes, and was sobbing aloud. 

Pauw seized her hand and uttered a cry of pain- 
ful surprise; but the sorrowing girl gently and 
sadly withdrew it, covered her face more com- 
pletely, while deep sobs of anguish burst from her 
breast. 

‘‘Katie, Katie,” cried the young man, in despair, 
“what are you in such trouble about? what is it? 
Speak to me, oh, speak!” 

The girl uncovered her face and raised her red- 
dened eyes to her lover’s face with an expression 
of unutterable grief and dejection, and said, im- 
ploringly — 

“Oh, Pauw, you mustn’t take it to heart; I 
know it isn’t your fault. You would never have 
had the cruelty to give your poor Katie her death- 
blow.” 

“But, for God’s sake, what has happened?” 
shouted the youth. 

“I will bear my bitter lot; and even if I pine 
and die, I shall never blame you, Pauw ; and I 
shall even pray that God may give you a wife who 
will love you as well as I do 1” 


72 THE HAPPINESS OF BEING HIGH. 

ha! ’tis the fear of that !” cried the young 
man, quite relieved. Cheer up, then, Katie ; 
between us there is no change : j^ou are deceiving 
yourself” 

The maiden looked at him with a smile of deep 
misery, and said — 

Oh, Pauw, I am far too lowlj^ a girl to dare to 
lift my eyes up to such as you. You are of a high 
family, and my father is only an honorable crafts- 
man.” 

The young man stamped his foot on the ground 
with angry impetuosity. 

‘^Who has put such notions into your head, 
Katie? the wicked tongues of the neighbors, I 
suppose? Katie, do you listen to their envious 
talk?” 

Ko, no,” sobbed the girl ; ‘^your mother scoffed 
at us in the shop over the way, and said 
that no cobbler’s daughter should ever come 
into her family. You must be obedient, Pauw. 
Leave me alone with my sorrow; it will pass 
away.” 

And, with a fresh flood of quiet tears, she 
added : When I am laid in the churchyard — 

when you go out to walk sometimes, and you see 
in the distance the trees of the Stuivenberg,* think 
.sometimes of our love, Pauw, and say in your 
heart — ‘ There lies Katie, who died so young be- 
cause she loved me too well.’ ” 


A cemetery in the suburbs of the city. 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING BICH. 


73 


Pauw had covered his eyes with his hands, and 
trembled with emotion. 

‘‘Katie,” said he, quickly, and in a tone of deep 
sorrow, “you are piercing my heart by your in- 
justice. Were my father a king, you should be 
my little wife still ! My mother herself does not 
wish it otherwise.” 

“ She feels too bitter a contempt for us, Pauw.” 

“Well, well; but you know riches blind people 
for a moment. My mother has sent me to you ; 
she loves you as much as ever; and it isn’t ten 
minutes ago she said to me, ‘Rich or not rich, 
Katie shall be my daughter.’ ” 

The girl began to tremble in every limb ; she 
looked at the youth with glistening eyes and 
heaving bosom. 

“Oh, heavens! good heavens I” she exclaimed; 
“Dame Smet, you will be my mother still! The 
death I saw floating before my eyes will flee away 
again ; and I may be once more happy in the 
world ! Pauw, Pauw, oh, don’t deceive me !” 

At this moment the shoemaker entered the 
room. He had evidently just risen up from his 
work, for he had his awl in his hand. He bent a 
severe look on the young man, and said — 

“ Mynheer Smet, I am surprised that you dare 
to come into our house again. We are poor in- 
deed and humble, but we are honorable, and every 
man is a king in his own house. It is, perhaps, 
no fault of yours ; but that matters not. Go hence 
— forget where we live — or else — ” 
r 


74 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


Oil, father dear, don’t be angry !” cried the 
young girl ; it is not as you think.” 

‘‘Your parents act by reason and by rule,” said 
the shoemaker, with a bitter sneer. “As long as 
we were fellows in the same guild, all was right 
enough; but now that they have got a legacy of 
ever so many sacks of gold, now it would be a 
great disgrace that you, Pauw, should marry the 
daughter of a mere nobody — the daughter of a 
poor cobbler ! But the cobbler has a heart in his 
body, for all that; and he will not allow you hence- 
forth to cast an eye on his daughter. Go to the 
great streets, and seek there a wife suitable to your 
condition !” 

“Master Dries, you are cruel and unjust,” said 
the young man, stammering with vexation and 
alarm. “My mother sends me to you to crave 
your forgiveness for some thoughtless words she 
has uttered. It was not seriously meant, and she 
begs you to be kind enough to forget what has 
passed.” 

“Ho, no,” answered the shoemaker; “that 
won’t do. She has scorned us openly, before 
everybody. You, Pauw, must keep away from 
my house. We are not rich; but yet, look you, 
it shall never be said that we let ourselves be 
trampled under foot by anybody.” 

“ And if my mother were to come herself, and 
confessed to you that she did not mean what she 
said?” 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


75 


^^Look you, now, that would look like some- 
thing,” muttered Master Dries. 

“Well, now, she will come; I’ll go and fetch 
her.” 

“I saw her go out just this minute,” remarked 
the shoemaker. 

“ Then I’ll go home as soon as she comes back, 
and ask her to come and speak to you.” 

“1^0, no, not so, Pauw; you shall not stay here. 
And I won’t have you come unless your mother is 
with you. The neighbors are standing in a crowd 
at our door. Come, come; if all is as you say, 
every thing will come right of itself ; but now, I 
must beg you, Pauw, to leave my house, and go 
home.” 

The young man turned toward the door, and 
said to the. girl, as he took leave, “Katie, Katie, 
don’t be alarmed ; keep a good heart ; all will go 
right enough. I shall be back again directly with - 
my mother.” 

When Pauw entered his home, he found his 
father sitting at the table. The poor man was 
pale, and looked very desponding; his eyes, 
wearied with his unwonted and involuntary vigil, 
were dull and restless. 

“Pauw, why are you so red in the face?” he 
asked, in some surprise. 

“Why, father,” was the answer, “I have been 
to Katie ; she was sitting sobbing and crying so, 
that I could have broken my heart to see her. 
The shoemaker wanted to turn me out of doors ; 

Q 


76 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEINH RICH. 


but we have come to an understanding. Are you 
ill, father? You seem to me to look so pale ; shall 
I run for the doctor?” 

^^No, no, it is gone now; it was nothing but a 
disturbance of the nerves. And what was the 
cause of Katie’s sorrow? what made the shoe- 
maker so angry with you?” 

“Why, I don’t exactly know; mother has said 
in the shop yonder that Katie was not good 
enough to enter our family ; and thereupon — ^you 
can easily fancy how — the shoemaker got on the 
high horse. But he is off again by this time; and 
when mother comes home, I^vill go with her to 
the shoemaker’s, and set all straight.” 

“Your mother! your mother!” said the schouW'* 
veger, with a deep sigh, “she will make us all 
miserable. She can’t restrain her pride, and chats 
and gossips as if we had ever so many thousand 
crowns coming to us.” 

“Three sacks of gold, father. Y^hen I was 
coming just now from the shoemaker’s, Annemie, 
there at the green-grocer’s, asked me if it was true 
that we had, over and above the sacks of gold, 
I don’t know how many houses and ships on the 
sea.” 

“Good heavens!” said the schouwveger, sadly; 
“ ’tis very unlucky ! With all this chattering and 
prating of your mother, we shall never have a 
moment’s peace again. All the thieves and vaga- 
bonds of the city will be lurking about the house. 
God only knows how many plots will be con- 


THE HAPPINESS OP BEING RICH. 77 

trived to break in here at the first opportunity, 
and rob us — murder us, perhaps !” 

‘^Yes, indeed, father; that is very likely. It 
seems the whole city is standing in groups, dis- 
cussing our wonderful legacy.’’ 

AYonderful legacy?” r^eated the schouwveger, 
scratching his head in desperation. Ah, Pauw, 
there is not near so much as they say.” 

The neighbors say it is at least three sacks of 
gold,” said Pauw, laughing. 

^^The neighbors are out of their senses.” 

‘‘Well, father, wasn’t there at least one single 
sack of gold?” 

“Ko, no; only a moderate burgher’s fortune: 
enough to live quietly on with care and economy.” 

“Whom am I to believe? Mother talks of a 
great house with a porte-cochere on St. James’s 
Place ; of hats with feathers ; of maid-servants 
and footmen ; and of so many other things, that I 
really thought she had found Fortunatus’s purse, 
and we were going to live in a mountain of gold.” 

“Your mother will bring us to lie on straw 
again,” cried Master Smet, with bitterness and 
wrath. “But wait — I’ll let her see that I am 
master here. And if I once get off my hook. I’ll 
trample her hat and feathers under my feet, and 
tear all her silk clothes to pieces ; and if she won’t 
dress as she ought to do. I’ll turn her out of doors. 
Yes, yes, don’t look at me so, Pauw; I’ll turn her 
out of doors! And you, too; what’s that round 
your neck, you prodigal?” 

Q 7* 


78 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


Oh, bless me ! I had forgotten all about it,’' 
sighed Pauw, tearing the satin neckerchief from 
his throat. Mother made me put it on ; but the 
fewer colored rags I have on my body the better 1 
shall be pleased.” 

The young man now started backward, keeping 
his eye fixed with gloomy surprise upon his father, 
who had again stooped down with his head on his 
hands, as though exhausted by fatigue, and was 
looking vacantly at the table. 

After a while Pauw said, half angrily — 

“I wish the legacy was — I know where! We 
were not born for riches; we don’t take kindly to 
them. Would you believe, father, that I’d mther 
remain poor than pass my life like this?” 

Oh, my child, don’t wish for poverty,” said his 
father, with a sigh. ^‘If your mother does not 
behave more sensibly, we shall soon be cast down 
again into the depth of misery and want. Per- 
haps they already stand threatening at our door !” 

The tone of his father’s voice was so singularly 
harsh and melancholy, that the young man looked 
at him with a kind of terror, and exclaimed, with 
painful anxiety — 

“But, father, you are ill — very ill 1” 

“There’s nothing the matter with me; I am 
onl}^ a little bit tired,” was the faint reply. 

“ How is it possible ? Can the money have thus 
changed us all? Your eyes are cloudy, your face 
is pale, your voice is quite changed from what it 
was; all is so slow and so languid now, father. 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 79 

All, we were always so happy, and so merry ; you 
used to sing from morning till night ; every word 
you uttered was so funny that no one could help 
laughing. I feel sure that money is a foe to joy ; 
for now and then I find my own head falling on 
my breast, and something— I don’t know what — 
begins to gnaw at my heart.” 

^‘Yes, my boy,” muttered the schouwveger, 
there is indeed some truth in what you say; but 
yet to be rich is a great advantage.” 

‘‘So it seems!” said Pauw, bitterly. “Since 
there has been talk of this confounded legacy, 
I have heard nothing but grumbling and lamen- 
tation. I begin to fear that people will soon call 
us Jan-Sorg {careworn) and Pauwken-Verdriet 
{fretful),'' 

“It’s all your mother’s fault,” said Master Smet, 
in a tone of vexation ; “ her love of extravagance 
is what worries me. Only fancy, Pauw, she is 
gone oflF to look out for a maid-servant ; and she 
has made up her mind not to have any one who 
has not lived with some my lady ! I set myself 
against it, and was very angry ; but get an idea 
out of your mother’s head if you can 1 Strange 
people in my house ? Why, I shall never sleep in 
peace again !” 

“But why are you so afraid of everybody, 
father? If we had got the legacy, and if there 
was a great treasure, here in the house, I could 
understand it ; but now — ” 

The front door was opened at this moment, and 


80 


THE HAPPINESS OE BEING KICH. 


a personage entered, ^vhose appearance cut short 
Pauw’s sentence. 

It was a young footboy, with a golden band 
round his hat, and clothed in an old livery coat, 
which hung about his body like a sack, and the 
tails of which reached down to his heels. The 
fellow had sandy hair, and a coarse lumpish face, 
which betokened an unwonted stolidity. 

At his entrance, he stared round the room quite 
bewildered, and muttered, half aloud, to himself— 
‘‘The people in the city are determined to take 
me for a fool ! I’m regularly taken in ; but any- 
how I’ll ask — ” 

“ Well, now, what do you mean by this?” cried 
Pauw. 

“It is only, you see, my lad,” answered the 
footboy, “I am not where I ought to be. The 
girls in the street there have taken me in. I 
wanted to find my lady the schouwveger’s wife, 
who has, all at once, got so many bags of gold 
and ships at sea.” 

“Well, that is here,” answered Pauw. 

“Here, here, in this house?” stammered the 
footboy. “ A wy lady here ? It can’t be.” 

“ If you won’t believe it, begone as quick as you 
can, and leave us in peace.” 

The schouwveger shook his head in anxious 
thought, but spoke not a word ; he kept his eye 
fixed on the table, with a smile of bitter contempt 
on his face. 

“If it is here,” said the boy to Pauw, “then 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


81 


I may as well say what I’ve come about. You 
must know I live with my lady van Steen. She 
took me from running after the cows, and said 
I should live the life of a lord ; but you wouldn’t 
believe how I have been treated. It is nothing 
but a thump here and a kick there ! Since I 
jammed the tail of her half-starved lapdog in 
the door, and set the window-curtains on fire by 
accident, she can’t bear to set her eyes on me. 
I hear nothing but — ^ donkey, booby, country lout,’ 
and — but you have known all about it, I dare say 
— the words rich people use. I have heard say 
that your lady wanted a footman, to stand behind 
her carriage, and carry her muff* or her prayer- 
book. Besides, I can turn my hand to any thing — 
horses especially I can groom and take care of. 
You are, I suppose, the stable-boy ; and the old 
fellow there is, perhaps, the coachman of my lady. 
Put in a good word for me, both of you ; we shall 
understand one another very well, and contrive to 
live a jolly life.” 

Pauw looked at his father with a merry laugh ; 
but the schouwveger broke out into a furious pas- 
sion. He sprang up, clenched his fist, and roared 
to the footboy — 

Get out of my house, you shameless scoundrel ! 
Quick! look sharp! or I’ll knock you into the 
middle of the street!” 

The poor footboy, seeing him prepare to execute 
his threat, slunk out at the door in consternation, 
and muttered — 


82 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING PvICH. 


‘‘'Now, now, don’t bite me. I haven’t done you 
any harm. These great city lords — I believe they 
all have a screw loose in their heads.” 

And when he had said these words, he shut the 
door quickly,, and ran away as fast as his legs 
would carry him. 

The door opened again very soon. It was Dame 
Smet, who strode into the room, darting angry and 
threatening looks at her husband and at her son. 

^^Pauw,” growled the schouwveger, pale with 
anger, ‘‘ I am going up-stairs, for I feel I can’t lay 
hands on a woman ; if I stay here, I shall do 
something — ” * 

And, so saying, he went grumbling up the stairs. 

‘‘What’s going on now?” asked the dame, in a 
haughty tone of voice. 

“ Oh, nothing at all, mother,” answered the 
youth. “A stupid lout of a boy came here to 
offer himself as servant, and we have sent him 
about his business. If you must hire a servant, 
jmu may as well get one who is fit to be seen.” 

“Oh, is that all?” muttered she. “I thought, 
by your father’s looks, that something dreadful had 
happened again.” 

Pauw took her hand, and asked, with a voice of 
earnest entreaty — 

“Mother, ma}^ I ask you something, before you 
take off your cloak?” 

“Yes, to be sure, child; anj^ thing you like.” 

“ Oh, mother, I have been to Katie. If you had 
seen her, you would have burst into tears ; the poor 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


83 


lamb was almost dying. She implores you just to 
go to her house, and tell her that you are not angry 
with her ; and I, knowing your dear kind heart, 
mother— I promised you would come. Come, 
mother, come !’' 

^^You wheedling rogue, you !” said the dame, 
with a smile, “•who could refuse you any thing?” 

Pauw went to the foot of the stairs, and shouted 
out, Father, I am going with mother close by to 
the shoemaker’s. We shall be back again in a 
minute.” 

And, with a joyous countenance, he led his 
mother out of the house. 


CHAPTER V. 

As if the treasure had been only an envious 
sprite who had assumed this form to torment the 
poor schouwveger, his house, once so happy, was 
changed into a hell of gloom and sadness and 
discord. 

My lady Smet — for so she insisted on being 
called by the neighbors — ^had for son^e days been 
in delighted possession of her new clothes and 
of her silk chapeau. From head to foot she was 
covered with velvet and with satin ; she wore gold 
in her ears, gold round her neck, gold on her 
bosom, and gold on both her hands. 


84 THE HAPPINESS OP BEING llICH. 

Thus apparelled and adorned, quite like a genuine 
my lady^ she roamed all over the city, and felt not 
the slightest annoyance when she saw that every- 
body stopped and stared at her as she passed — in 
amazement or in amusement, — and that many 
pointed at her with their fingers. 

This universal attention was, on the contrary, a 
source of great delight to her, and flattered her 
pride extremely. She fancied that the boj^s said 
one to another, There goes the wife of the schouw- 
veger who has so suddenly become rich as a Jew.’' 

And all this pointing and w^hispering was far 
from appearing to her a rebuke ; she thought the 
passers-by were admiring the stateliness of her 
bearing and the grace with which she walked. 
She read in the eyes of every one she met, ^‘Look, 
there is my lady Smet ! What a fine woman ! 
what dignity ! One can see at once that she is of 
a good family !” 

Indeed, had not the fame of her wonderful legacy 
made her known all over the city, no one would 
have distinguished her from a real my lady — except, 
perhaps, that the suddenly-raised schouwveger’s 
lady was covered with clothes and golden orna- 
ments, like the figures in the window of a magasin 
des modes; that she carried her head somewhat 
stiffly, and turned it so slowly and so perseveringly 
in all directions, just as though it were set on a 
pivot ; that she had great broad feet, and took great 
strides like a man ; that her face was very red, and 
that she seemed to ask every one she met, ‘‘ Well, 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


85 


now, what do you think of that ? I hope you see 
now that my lady Smet is of a good family !” 

She liked best of all to walk round the Meir 
and the Egg-market, where the most splendid and 
fashionable shops were to be found. There she 
would make some little purchases, and gossip by 
the hour with the shopkeeper’s wife and daughters, 
all about my aunt in Holland, and about her in- 
tention to take a house, and furnish it as grandly 
and as richly as. that of the first nobleman of the 
land. 

She inquired daily and of everybody whether 
they knew of a good housemaid, or a good cook, 
of a coachman, a stable-boy, or a footman. She 
asked everybodj^’s opinion which was the most 
stylish color to choose for the horses she was 
going to buy ; and gave it as her opinion that the 
Meir was not a healthy situation to live in, be- 
cause there was a large drain undier the street. 
Therefore she had determined to take a house with 
a porte-cochere on the St. James’s market-place ; 
and since the owner would not sell it, she meant 
to rent it until some good opportunity of buying 
presented itself. 

After having in the course of her ramble suffi- 
ciently exhibited herself to the wondering city, she 
returned homeward; and she took care never to 
walk twice on the same side of her own street, so 
that all the neighbors might have the benefit of 
ceeing and admiring her. 

On her former acquaintance she would bestow a 
8 


86 


THE HAPPINESS OP BEING RICH. 


cold smile of condescending benevolence. She 
called some of the dames by their Christian names ; 
promised them all her protection and good graces ; 
and this she did so haughtily that the poor people 
who were the objects of her civility felt their 
hearts overflow with gall at sight of the proud and 
supercilious upstart. 

The schouwveger was about the unhappiest man 
on the face of the earth. He knew well that the 
treasure was not inexhaustible, and grumbled from 
morning till night at the extravagance of his wife. 
She avenged herself by calling him a hunks, a 
miser, a hair-splitter, and averred that any one 
could see that he didn’t come of a good family. 

Besides, the money was hers^ and not hiSj and 
she might do what she liked with it. She had no 
notion of living like people who never saw more 
than one crown at a time ; and if he chose to bite 
a farthing into quarters, and sit wearing himself 
out like an old miser, she would let him see that 
she knew how rich people spent their money. 

Then the schouwveger would go into a violent 
passion, and insist on having the key of the chest; 
and then my lady^ forgetting the proprieties of her 
station, would put her arms akimbo, and over- 
whelm her hapless spouse with such a flood of 
abuse and threatenings, that lie was invariably 
obliged to beat a retreat, and creep up-stairs, with 
tears in his eyes, to grumble by himself. 

Sometimes matters went still farther; on one 
occasion their strife had ended in blows. The 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


87 


schouwveger liad, after considerable provocation, 
laid his hand somewhat uncivilly oh the shoulder 
of his disdainful spouse ; but my lady Smet, irri- 
tated by this unwarrantable liberty, had sprung at 
him like a wild cat, and ploughed his face with 
her nails. 

There the matter ended ; but both husband and 
wife looked so spitefully at each other, and were 
so furious, that there remained no hope of recon- 
ciliation. For several days not a word passed 
between them; or if by chance one of them ad- 
dressed a question to the other, the answer was a 
snarl or a vicious growl. 

Dame Smet insisted on taking the great house 
on the St. James’s market. Her husband talked 
very loud, and declared that he didn’t mean to 
move. This disagreement led to violent and pro- 
longed quarrels, and already the dame had declared 
more than once that she would go off* to her lawyer, 
and petition the supreme eourt for a divorce. 

Pauw, the merry lad, had lost all his mirth and 
energy. The everlasting disputes and quarrels of 
his parents had broken his spirit quite ; for, though 
he talked in an ofi-hand way, and turned eveiy- 
thing into ridicule, he had a tender and affectionate 
heart. 

Ho joke escaped him now; and when he made a 
faint attempt to say something lively, it was quite 
a failure; he couldn’t help it — but there was 
always an undertone of bitterness and sadness in 
his voice. 


88 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


Whenever he was alone with his father^ he nsed 
every effort to comfort him and to soothe his 
irritated spirit. When he was with his mother, 
ho tried with gentle and loving words to make 
her see that his father was perhaps a little too 
overbearing, but that his carefulness and frugality 
might easily be excused. 

Poor Pauw’s efforts were all in vain. 'No sooner 
did his parents meet again than the niggardliness 
of the one came in collision with the extravagance 
of the other, and the contest was renewed with 
increased vigor and bitterness. 

In the young man’s heart was another point of 
anguish and depression. His mother had, it is 
true, abandoned her intention of separating him 
from Katie ; but she had never ceased to impress 
on the poor child a sense of her great inferiority, 
and to inflict the deepest wounds possible on the 
self-respect of the shoemaker. 

When Katie came to see her, she insisted on 
instructing her how to walk, and how to stand ; 
how she must speak, and how she ought to salute 
her neighbors ; how she ought to carry her head, 
and how she must turn out her toes. 

The sorrowful maiden, sustained by her deep 
affection, submitted with exemplary meekness to 
the whims and follies of her future mother ; she 
even seemed gratiffed whenever Dame Smet im- 
pressed upon her what a favor, what an honor, 
they conferred on her in admitting her into sc 
good a family. 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


89 


III the shop and in the neighborhood, whenever 
the matter was talked over, my lady Smet recounted 
her generosity and true nobleness of soul, and 
instanced how she had consented, out of mere 
good-nature, to the marriage of her son with the 
daughter of a — shoemaker. She had even ven- 
tured to say to Katie’s father that it was a very 
great honor for him to become a member of so 
distinguished a family. 

The depreciating remarks of Dame Smet were 
a constant worry to the shoemaker. He did not 
conceal his vexation from Pauw, to whom he 
muttered his doubts how the marriage would turn 
out, and declared that he would put a stop to it, 
if Dame Smet persisted in treating his daughter 
like a beggar-maid, who was just tolerated out of 
charity. 

The shoemaker, although only a poor artisan, 
had a pride of his own ; and he would assuredly 
have long since refused to admit Pauw into his 
house, had not both the lad and his father said all 
kinds of soothing words to him, and implored his 
forgiveness with tears in their eyes. But though 
he postponed the final decision, there remained an 
increasing bitterness in his heart, and he no longer 
regarded Pauw with a favorable eye. 

These untoward occurrences began to alarm the 
two young people not unfrequently. When Pauw 
was seated by Katie’s side, the tears would flow 
silently down their cheeks. 

Eight days had already passed since the discovery 


90 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


of the treasure ; the schouwveger had not once left 
his house, except to go to church on Sunday. 

It was now Monday, and the evening was falling 
in ; there had been already a violent quarrel — with 
this difference, however, that this time it was fol- 
lowed by an apparent reconciliation. 

Dame Smet availed herself of the propitious 
moment to convince her husband that he did wrong 
in sitting at home all day long, and that it would 
be better, both for his health and for his under- 
standing, that he should go about a bit among 
the neighbors. 

Pauw promised, at his father’s request, that he 
would not leave the house unprotected ; and so 
the schouwveger allowed himself to be persuaded 
to go out and drink a pint of beer with his 
friends. 

His wife had expended much eloquence in the 
attempt to convince him that he ought not to go 
into a public-house, but into a cafe in the Cathedral 
Close, or on the Meir, and that he ought to begin 
to drink wine. But, being now in a good humor, 
she agreed at length that her husband might take 
a turn outside the city, toward the Dyke, just as 
he used to do. 

‘When the schouwveger came to the Dyke, and 
found himself among his old filends, some time 
was occupied in congratulations ; but as soon as 
they bad placed themselves round the table to have 
a game at cards, these remarks ceased of them- 
selves, and the schouwveger felt as comfortable 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 91 

and as merry as before he became rich. How 
cheering the sound of the voices of his friends ! 
What real affection and heartfelt peace in every 
one of their words ! How soft and inspiriting the 
taste of his customary beer ! What a relish there 
was in his pipe ! How enchantingly the smoke 
rose in clouds above their heads ! 

Master Smet felt himself in another world, and 
for some hours forgot all about his treasure — forgot 
even his wife. He found again some of his former 
jokes, and more than once caused his friends a 
hearty laugh. 

The clock of the public-house was striking ten, 
when the schouwveger, astonished that the time 
had passed so quickly, rose and said that he must 
return home. 

They tried to keep him. There was in another 
public-house a match going on between two 
butchers, which should eat most hard eggs ; and 
they wanted to sit it out. 

Master Smet, who had already remained much 
too late, through forgetfulness, shook hands with 
his friends, and assured them that he would come 
and keep them company some evenings every 
week, just as he did before. 

It ^vas quite half an hour’s walk from the Dyke 
to the gate of the city, and the road was very 
lonely. 

The night was dark; but, as the schouwveger 
had gone this road a hundred times, he walked on 
without fear. 

R 


92 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


He felt veiy glad that he had seen his friends: 
his heart beat more lightly, and in the darkness a 
gentle smile played about his lips ; for he ^Yas 
thinking, as he walked, how many pleasant even- 
ings he should spend there on the Dyke, among 
his old friends, now that spring was come again. 
And now he had reached the outskirts of the city, 
and was walking under some high trees, without 
thought or apprehension of danger. 

All at once a suppressed cry of terror escaped 
him. A man sprang from behind a tree, and held 
a pistol to the breast of the trembling schouw- 
veger. 

K you scream or cry, you’re a dead man,” said 
the robber, gruffly. 

What — what do you want of me ?” stammered 
poor Smet, half dead with fright. 

‘^Your money or your life!” said the other, 
with a threatening gesture. 

There — there is all I have : a five-franc piece 
and a few cents.” 

‘‘You are telling a lie; you’ve had a legacy. 
I’ll have your money, or I’ll put this through you I” 
roared the thief, whistling at the same time, as if 
to make a signal to some one at a little distance. 

Thereupon two other rogues came running from 
among the underwood ; one of them thrust a 
handkerchief into the schouwveger’s mouth, and 
the other tripped him up on the grass. 

They felt in all his pockets ; they took away his 
silver watch ; they tore his blouse, and thumped 


THE HAPPINESS OF HEING RICH. 


93 


and kicked him cruelly. The poor man could 
make no noise, and felt, with unutterable agony, 
that they were about to murder him. 

Frightful words rang in his ears : — 

‘‘Kill him, the rascal! he has cheated us, the 
thief!’' 

Whether it was that the robbers heard the sound 
of approaching footsteps, or that they were con- 
vinced that nothing more was to be got out of 
their victim, they gave the schouwveger a few 
parting blows with their fists, then added a few 
vigorous kicks, and threw him into a thicket; they 
then ran away at full speed, and were soon lost in 
the gloom. 

Master Smet remained for some time quite 
stunned ; but, as he had received no dangerous 
wmund, he came round, rose up, and ran as fast as 
he could along the road to the gate of the city. 

He thought of running into the first house he 
came to, and asking for assistance to pursue the 
thieves ; but then he felt that this was of no use ; 
and, besides, he feared that the whole city, and 
especially the commissary of police, would begin 
to meddle with his affairs. 

Like a true miser — for such he had now be- 
come — he preferred digesting his bitter chagrin 
as best he could, to drawing universal attention 
toward himself, and perhaps having to answer 
the inquiries of the police concerning his trea- 
sure. 

So he walked on, with beating heart, and shak- 


94 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


ing all over with, pain and terror, through the city 
gate, and along the street toward his dwelling; 
and as he 'walked, melancholy musings on the 
inimense advantages of being rich forced their 
way into his mind, and more than once he cursed 
the treasure which had occasioned him such con- 
tinual grief, so much contention and vexation, so 
much soreness of heart, and such peril. He thought 
sadly of his former life, of his poverty, and of his 
happiness and his uninterrupted mirth ; and some- 
times he even asked himself whether it would not 
be better for him to divide the treasure among his 
needy neighbors. But all these speculations va- 
nished at the touch of the demon of gold who 
held him captive in his grasp ; and his heart clung 
with fiery eagerness to his beloved treasure. 

Thus wavering between despair, terror, and 
covetousness, he reached his house, and sank into 
a chair with a heavy sigh. His wife and his son 
tended him with affectionate care, and listened 
with a shudder to the account he gave of his ad- 
ventures. The schouwveger could not close his 
eyes all that night. Ho sooner did he begin to 
doze, than he dreamt of thieves and murderers ; 
and, besides, he felt the smart of the blows which 
he had received on his head and shoulders, and 
— elsewhere. 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


&5 


CHAPTEE VI. 

The next morning a rumor ran through the 
street that Dame Smet had not had any legacy, 
and had no chance of any. The lawyer who had 
been worried for years in searching out all her 
genealogy had said that the Smets had no rela- 
tives in Holland, and consequently could receive 
no legacy. 

The mysterious secrecy of the schouwveger gave 
credit to this rumor. The envy and bitterness of 
the neighbors, excited by Dame Smet’s haughti- 
ness, gladly seized it as a foundation and pretext 
for all kinds of conjectures and surmises as to the 
origin of the sudden wealth of the schouwveger. 

Their suspicions were still further confirmed 
when they noticed that three or four police agents 
were wandering up and down the street without 
any apparent object; they noticed, too, that every 
now^ and then they looked askance at the schouw- 
veger s house, like ravenous birds who have caught 
scent of their prey, without knowing precisely 
where to pounce upon it. 

Then a story got abroad that just a week be- 
fore — the very night before the news of the legacy 
reached them — there had been a robbery at a 


96 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


money-changer’s in the city, and that the thieves 
had made off with a large quantity of silver and 
gold. Nobody ventured to say directly that the 
schouwveger was likely to rob any one of a stiver; 
but then, money couldn’t drop from the clouds; 
and, anyhow, the Smets must know where they 
got it from. 

Pauw was sitting in the shoemaker’s house, at 
Katie’s side ; she was working at her embroidery, 
and had great difficulty in restraining the tears 
which would trickle down upon her w^ork in spite 
of her efforts. The young man’s head h^iiig down, 
and he was silent and moody; his countenance 
indicated violent and unwonted emotion ; his fore- 
head glowed at intervals with indignation and 
anger ; then his features would relax into an ex- 
pression of utter despondencj', or a cold shudder 
would thrill through his whole frame. He could 
not help knowing what fearful suspicions were 
hinted in the neighborhood about his father ; and 
he was evidently lost in melancholy musing, and 
trembled beneath the crushing blow of shame. 

The maiden, compassionating his distress, made 
every effort to suppress her own sorrow, and tried 
to comfort him by saying, with a sigh — 

‘‘Pauw, don’t give way to low spirits. Men have 
evil tongues. Don’t fret about it. What matters 
the gossip of the neighbors, if your parents can 
show where they got their money?” 

“The money !” muttered the youth between his 
teeth. “Ah, Katie dear, it is the monej^ that 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


97 


makes us all so wretched ! My father is growing 
as thill as a skeleton ; he will fall ill and ^vaste 
away. My mother, poor thing ! I dare not say 
what I think about her. She has her five senses 
still ; but what will come of her? There are times 
when I tremble for her reason ! And your father 
is so cross to me ! And I can’t blame him ; he 
has to submit to so much humiliation. Ah, Katie, 
Katie, what will happen now, when up and down 
the street they say things about my poor, innocent 
father which make my hair stand on end with 
terror and shame. Oh, Katie dear, I shake all 
over ; I am full of fear. There is something that 
tells me we shall be separated; that there is 
nothing before either of us, all our life long, but 
misery and sorrow.” 

The maiden hid her face in her hands. 

‘‘Katie,” continued Pauw, with a deeper emotion 
in his voice, “ this morning I went quietly to the 
church, and prayed more than an hour before the 
crucifix. I besought God, with tears, that he would 
be so merciful as to make us poor again !” 

The girl raised her head, and said, with tears in 
her eyes — 

“Pauw, you must not give way to all these 
gloomy fancies. There are so many rich people ; 
do you think they are all miserable?” 

“ I don’t know, Katie ; but to us, at least, money 
is poison and gall. Since that wretched day we 
have had nothing but quarrelling, anger, terror, 
and suftering. My father was nearly murdered 

9 


98 


THE HAPPINESS OP BEING RICH. 


yesterday. Yesterday, the knife of the murderer; 
to-day, the knife of slander and calumny ! Oh, it 
is dreadful ! to hear that my father has been rob- 
bing — that he is a thief — and not to be able to find 
out the serpent who first cast this venom on my 
father’s name !” 

At this moment the shoemaker entered the 
house. His face was pale, and betokened great 
discomposure; he looked as if something had 
frightened him out of his senses. 

^‘Katie,” said he, speaking very fast, ^^go up 
into your room ; leave me alone with Pauw ; but 
first bolt the street-door.” 

The girl uttered a shriek of anguish, and raised 
her hands imploringly to her father, as if to depre- 
cate some cruel sentence; but an imperative 
glance of his eye, and the repetition of his com 
mand, compelled her to obey. She left the room, 
covering her eyes with her hands. 

The shoemaker placed himself in front of Pauw, 
and asked, with a voice of emotion — ‘^Pauw, where 
did your father get the money that your mother is 
spending by handfuls?” 

The young schouwveger looked at him in amaze- 
ment, but did not answer quickly enough to please 
the shoemaker. 

Speak, speak! where does the money come 
from ? It is for your own good I ask.” 

^‘My mother got it as a legacy,”, stammered 
Pauw. 

‘‘Has the legacy come already?” 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


99 


not yet.’' 

‘‘Where does the money come from, then?” 

“ They have got some in advance, I suppose.” 

“ From whom ? From where ?” 

“I don’t know any thing about it.” 

“ You don’t know any thing about it, poor fel- 
low! My poor friend Smet, what will come to 
him next? Oh, God!” 

“But what is the matter?” cried Pauw, in evi- 
dent terror. “You are quite ruffled. What has 
happened? I am shaking like a reed; you are 
killing me with agony !” 

The shoemaker took him by the hand, led him 
away from the window, and said, in a mysterious 
and melancholy tone — 

“Pauw, I was sent for just now to measure one 
of the servants of the commissary of police for a 
pair of shoes. It was only a trick: the commis- 
sary himself wanted to speak to me. He asked 
me a great many questions about your father, 
about the legacy, about the explanations your 
mother has given the neighbors as to the. source 
of the money she displays everywhere in such 
abundance. I cannot tell you what the commis- 
sary said to me confidentially; but I am very sorry 
for your father, who was always my dear friend ; 
and if he has done wrong, I shall always lament 
his unhappy fate.” 

Pauw stood looking into the shoemaker’s eye 
with a vacant stare, and shivering as if he had the 
ague. 


100 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING KICH. 


‘‘ I pity you^ Pauw, and my poor Katie, too ; tor 
she is not to blame — nor you either, Pauw.” 

For God’s sake, speak ! What has happened V 
sobbed the youth, quite beside himself. 

‘‘Pauw,” said the shoemaker, lowering his voice 
to a whisper, “tell your father to be off* out of the 
way as soon as he can ; for the officers are coming 
to apprehend him.” 

“ To apprehend him !” exclaimed Pauw, with 
an expression of indignation and pride on his 
face; “to apprehend my father! Ha! ha! how 
absurd !” 

“Believe me, Pauw,” repeated the shoemaker, 
in a tone of entreaty; “take my advice, or your 
father is a lost man !” 

Then, putting his mouth close to Pauw’s ear, he 
whispered, almost inaudibly — 

“A large sum of money has been stolen from a 
money-changer’s ; they suspect your father of be- 
ing, at least, an accomplice.” 

Pauw shuddered violently, and stared at the 
shoemaker with fixed ^nd glassy eyes. 

“What!” he exclaimed, “can you believe such, 
a slander ? Do you think it possible that my fa- 
ther is a thief?” 

“Ko, no; but if he cannot show how he came 
by the money, how can he exculpate himself?” 

“ He will show all about it. How can you 
doubt it?” 

“ So much the better. I have asked him several 
times, but there was always something about him 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


101 


that was not clear and straightforward. Do just 
as you like, Pauw ; but you see, until the thing is 
sifted to the bottom, you must keep away from 
here. Katie has nothing but her good name. 
You must not rob her of this, her only riches.’* 

A shriek of despair and of agony broke from 
the young man’s heart. He sprang up, and ex- 
claimed — 

‘‘Ha! I’ll know all about it; Iwill know all 
about it.” 

And, with these words, he ran out of the room 
into the street. 

When he entered his own dw^elling, he found 
his father alone, sitting on a chair. 

He locked the door and bolted it, and said, with 
eager haste — 

“Father, father dear, don’t be angry with me; 
but I can’t keep it any longer: I must know all 
about it.” 

The schouwveger gazed at him in astonishment. 

“ Fathei’j tell me — oh, tell me now — where does 
the money come from that my mother is showing 
to everybody?” 

“We have received it as a legacy,” was the 
reply. 

“Ho, no, the legacy hasn’t come yet; you have 
got in advance, haven’t jmu? You have bor- 
rowed it here in the city upon the legacy you are 
going to receive?” 

“Well, yes. Why do you trouble yourself 
about it?” 


9 * 


102 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


‘‘Where have you borrowed it? where?’' re* 
peated the young man, with feverish impatience. 

“But, Pauw, what has come to you?” cried the 
schouwveger, in a severe tone of voice; “you im- 
pudent fellow ! to cross-examine your father as if 
you were his judge !” 

This word affected the youth deeply. 

“I will, I must, I am determined to know!” he 
screamed. 

Master Smet shook his head sadly, and said, in 
a desponding tone — 

“ Pauw, you are asking me something that I 
cannot tell you now.” 

“ That you cannot tell me 1” said the trembling 
youth, with a deep sigh. “ Oh, good heavens 1” 

“ What is the matter with you, Pauw?” 

“Father, father,” exclaimed he, “a large sum 
of money has been stolen from a money-changer’s; 
people suspect you of being an accomplice in the 
robbery !” 

The schouwveger was struck with dismay, but 
he exerted himself to hide his discomposure. 

“It is only a slander of some envious people,” 
stammered he; “don’t disturb yourself about 
them.” 

“ Alas, alas ! the gendarmes are coming, father, 
to apprehend you 1” 

A death-like paleness overspread the schouw- 
veger’s face ; he uttered a low moan, and began 
to tremble on his chair. 

The sudden emotion of his father filled Pauw 


THE HAPPINESS OP BEING RICH. 


108 


with alarm. He clasped his hands in an attitude 
of supplication, and implored his father— 

‘‘For God’s sake, father, speak! Where — from 
whom — did you or mother get this money?” 

The schouwveger continued silent. 

“Alas!” said Pauw, mournfully, “can it be 
true ? Can it be that my father dares not declare 
where the money came from? Alas! I shall die 
of shame !” 

At this imputation, made by his own son, the 
schouwveger covered his eyes with his hands, and 
began to weep bitterly. The tears which escaped 
from between his fingers and fell to the ground so 
affected the poor young man that he uttered a loud 
cry of anguish and sorrow. 

He threw his arm round his father’s neck, kissed 
him tenderly on the forehead, and said, wdth tears — 

“Oh, forgive me, father; I am so miserable !” 

“Accused by my own son !” sobbed the schouw- 
veger. “ Oh, God ! how have I deserved this ?” 

“Ho, no,” said Pauw, beseechingly; “but I am 
compelled to hear you accused, and I cannot vin- 
dicate you. People ask me where you got the 
money. Oh, father dear, do tell me !” 

“I cannot — I must not,” repeated Master Smet. 

And observing that these words drove the color 
again from his son’s cheeks, he added — 

“But be sure of one thing: your father is an 
honest man.” 

“ And the gendarmes, father ? will you not tell 
them?” cried Pauw, trembling violently. 


104 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


The schouwveger rose up, as thougli he wished 
to avoid further questioning; and pointing with 
his finger to the door, he said, in a tone of com 
mand — 

Pauw, go away ; leave me alone ; I command 
you/’ 

Oh, father, father !” cried the youth, wringing 
his hands in despair. 

Obey me at once — ^go away !” repeated the 
schouwveger, with evident irritation. 

Pauw raised his hands above his head, and fled 
from his home with a shriek of terror and sus* 
picion. 

For about half an hour the schouwveger was all 
alone. His eyes were fi_xed and still, but he saw 
nothing; he was pondering all the vexation and 
misery the treasure had brought with it, and how 
his house was changed into a hell of unrest and of 
suftering. During this gloomy reverie there arose 
and grew in his heart a feeling of bitter hatred 
toward the fatal money which had robbed him of 
the peace and of the happiness of his life. The 
demon of avarice tried, indeed, to crush the insur- 
rection of his better soul ; but the thought that his 
own son believed him guilty, and the indescribable 
terror which the approaching visit of the gen- 
darmes excited in him, lent him sufficient strength 
to resist its fascinations. 

He resolved, at length, when the officers of jus- 
tice entered his house, to explain every thing 
frankly; and even if they took away the treasure 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


105 


with them, in God’s name, then, he would be a 
schoiiwveger again, as he had been before. 

This resolution made him feel lighter at heart, 
and even cheered him so much that he felt he 
should again be merry and open-hearted, as Jan- 
Grap had been in days past. 

When Dame Smet returned from her morning 
promenade, her husband repeated what Pauw had 
said ; and he added that he had made a firm and 
unchangeable resolve to declare every thing open- 
ly, and even to surrender the treasure into the 
hands of justice, if it were demanded. 

His wife knew much better than he did what 
rumors were in circulation about them, and what 
they had to fear. She first of all poured a torrent 
of abuse on the poor shoemaker, who, she said, 
had gone to the commissary, and, out of sheer 
envy, had set all this mischief afloat. Then she 
made her husband repeat again what Pauw had 
said, and answered, with a scornful laugh — 

But, Smet, what a blockhead you have grown ! 
The word ‘gendarme’ makes your heart shrink 
within you. Have you committed theft or rob- 
beiy ? What can thej" do to you ? 

“ ’Tis all the same ; I won’t tell a lie before the 
judge.” 

“No — tell it all right out, you booby! You 
know well enough that when justice lays its hand 
on any thing, there is no getting it out again. The 
lawyers and the men from Brussels would make 
fine fun with your money ! They would have a 


106 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


good laugh at the stupid bird that let itself bo 
plucked so easily 

Say what you like, I will conceal nothing 
— and, secondly, this money, d'ye see, begins to 
choke me terribly: I wish it were now in the 
mountain where they say all this cursed gold 
grows.” 

Dame Smet flew into a violent rage, stuck her 
hands in her sides, and snarled — 

^‘Ha! that’s the tune you’re going to sing, is it? 
Well, we’ll see ! ’Tis my money; your forefathers 
never had a stiver mote than enough to keep them 
from dying of starvation day by day. What ! you 
will give up the inheritance of my father to the 
lawyers ? Quick — speak out ! do you abide by 
this stupid resolution ?” 

Her husband, disconcerted by the flerce glare 
of her eyes, and by the fear that matters would 
not end with words only, did not dare to say yes; 
but still he nodded his head affirmatively. 

You thief!” cried she. ‘‘You will rob me of 
my gold, and give it away to strange people who 
have nothing to do with it, will you ? Well, then, 
I will not remain a moment more the wife of such 
a simple fool. I’ll be off at once to an advocate. 
I’ll be divorced from you — the law allows it — 
and then you may be poor, if you like, and sweep 
chimneys ; for meanness runs in your blood — low 
rascal that you are 1” 

“But, wife dear,” sobbed the affrighted schouw- 
veger, pale as death, “ only listen to sound reason.” 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


107 


What sound reason? You have never had a 
grain of sound reason in all your family. Speak, 
I tell you — will you behave as I wish, or not?” 

Her husband remained silent. 

‘‘Well,” growled she, “Pll make very short 
work of it. I’ll be ofl* with my money, and you 
shall never set eyes on me more.” 

And as the schouwveger remained silent, and 
with his head hung dejectedly down, she flamed 
forth into more violent anger. She rushed to the 
chest, and began in good earnest to All her pockets 
with money, and packed up a great deal more in a 
table-cloth, shaking all the time with passion, and 
muttering — 

“Well — you shall see! Stay you here, Jan- 
noodle — and let the gendarmes flt a halter to your 
neck at their easel Fare you well — <111 revoir! 
I’m off for America in the flrst ship — ay, farther 
than that too — so that I may never hear of you 
again !” 

The schouwveger knew well enough that his 
wife had not the slightest intention of putting 
these formidable threats into execution. Still, he 
shuddered at the thought that she would be 
running round the neighborhood wdth all this 
money about her, and making herself a laugh- 
ing-stock to everybody; so he made a spring at 
the door, drew the bolt, and put the key in his 
pocket. 

His wife, finding herself thus a prisoner, burst 
out into wild invectives, and used every exertion 


108 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


to take the key from her husband by main force. 
And this domestic conflict raged on until the 
schouwveger lost courage and gave wa}^, pro- 
mising faithfully to do just what his wife wished 
him to do. 

It was then resolved that, in case the officers of 
justice made their appearance, they should aflirm 
that the money came to them from the father of 
Dame Smet, and that they had kept it secret thus 
long. It would not do to speak of an advance 
upon the expected legacy, because they could not 
who made the advance. The rest of the 
money they would hide again in the beam where 
they had found it, and they would place the little 
plank which covered the opening in its former 
position. 

Dame Smet overwhelmed her hapless husband 
with threats of what she would do to him if he 
should betray, by word or look, where the money 
lay hidden. 

When the treasure had been carried into the 
attic, to the very last piece of gold. Dame Smet 
tried to raise her husband’s spirits and to rekindle 
in him the love of riches; but the schouwveger 
was like a man stunned at the thought of appear- 
ing in a court of justice. This seemed to him 
a disgraceful, a punishable matter ; and now he 
trembled, in all sincerity, like a thief who is 
caught ^n the fact. He heard nothing of his wife’s 
glowing descriptions ; but the slightest sound in 
the street affected his nerves so much that he 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RIOH, 


109 


seemed at each moment to hear the awful voice of 
the gendarmes or the police. 

And in the intervals of his paroxysms of terror, 
he muttered, in a tone of the deepest anguish — 
Cursed treasure ! devilish money V 


CHAPTER Vn. 

An hour later the little narrow street was full 
of groups of people, who were discussing in amaze- 
ment some unusual occurrence. 

'While they were chatting, every one’s eyes were 
anxiously fixed on the house of the schouwveger, 
at the door of which a gendarme kept guard. 

Katie was leaning against the wall of her house, 
with her apron at her eyes', and weeping bitterly. 
Some girls who stood round her seemed to parti- 
cipate in her grief ; and Annemie, especially, made 
many attempts to console her; but she herself 
could hardly restrain the tears which stood glisten- 
ing in her eyes. 

The largest group was posted immediately 
opposite the schouwveger’s door, and there were 
exchanged all kinds of edifying refiections and 
observations on this strange event. 

Serves her right!” muttered a fish-wife; ‘‘ this 
will teach her to my lady herself — the upstart 
s 10 


110 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING HIGH. 


minx, with her . silk bonnet and her satin gown ! 
Now she can tell all the honest folk in the house 
of correction what a good family she comes of. 
And if she wants to show herself off, the scaffold 
is quite large enough !” 

^^Yes, she comes of a great family — doesn’t 
she?” said another, wdth a sneer; ‘^at Vil- 
voorden* she’ll find six or seven hundred of her 
cousins!” 

‘^But how is it possible?” said an old chair- 
mender, with a sigh. I would have trusted Jan- 
Grap with my last stiver.” 

Such good, upright people, who never did any- 
body an injury !” added another. 

‘‘ Who cared so little for money that they were 
always giving alms, though they were not over 
well off themselves.” 

“ The most amiable, the best lad on the face of 
the earth !” 

“So merry and so clever! and they to rob like 
this — to break into a house in the night.” 

“Yes,” remarked the tailor’s wife, “after this 
nobody will be able to trust his own brother; 
every thing that goes on two legs is a thief. So 
much the worse for them that let themselves be 
caught.” 

“ Come, come, Betty,” said a mason, laugh- 
ingly, “ ’tisn’t quite so bad as that comes to, either. 
Because your husband cabbages a bit of cloth now 


* A prison at Antwerp. 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


Ill 


and then, yon think there are no honest people 
left.” 

‘‘Ha! you’ve cheated the gallows,” snarled the 
tailor’s wife. “ You’ve got the mark of ’em on 
you, you rogue !” 

“Thank you very much, Betty darling!” said 
the mason, with a smile and a bow. 

“Serves her right!” interposed the fish-wife. 
“I don’t like looking on at other people’s troubles; 
but if wy lady the schouwveger’s wife is to figure 
on the scaffold, I’d be off* to the great market, if I 
was on my deathbed.” 

“Fie, you shrew!” exclaimed one of the girls. 
“I^can’t think how you can take pleasure in the 
misfortunes of your neighbors. What good will 
it do you, now, if the Smets are sent to prison ?” 

“You simpleton!” said the fish-wife, with a 
smile of contempt; “you would rather see thieves 
running about at large, I suppose?” 

The girl was about to reply; but at this mo- 
ment an old dame thrust her head into the circle, 
and said — 

“But, bless my soul! do you know how Jan- 
Grap did the job ?” 

Every one looked at her with intense curiosity. 

“Only think!” she continued. “Never trust 
anybody again as long as you live ! I’ve always 
said, and I maintain the same now, that the law 
ought to prevent so much gold money being put 
in the window^s before people’s eyes. Yes, when 
a poor body is standing at a money-changer’s shop. 


112 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


and his eyes fall on the heaps of gold-pieces, ’tis 
just as if the devil was tempting him. I’m old 
now ; hut, for all that, whenever I pass a money- 
changer’s, and the gold twinkles before my eyes, 
then my heart begins to beat terribly, and I’m all 
of a shake with longing; you wouldn’t believe, 
now, that I’m quite afraid to trust myself. There’s 
Trees, the dustman’s wife, who is always standing 
staring into the windows ; only yesterday I said to 
her, ‘Well done. Trees; that’s the way to the 
gallows !’ ” 

“Yes, yes, to be sure,” remarked the chair- 
mender; “more than one have been made villains 
of, only by the sight of money.” 

“When you have seven children in your house, 
all shaking and shivering with hunger and cold,” 
grumbled a mechanic, “ and you see great heaps 
of gold lying there doing nothing, and think that 
one little piece would make you and your children 
so happy, it is indeed enough to make a man 
forget himself.” 

“But, Mother Beth, go on with your story about 
Master Smet !” was the universal cry. 

“Ha, yes; well, it was like this. Poor Jan- 
Grap had got the bad habit of standing at the 
money-changer’s window, to look at the piles of 
gold-pieces. Eight or ten days ago he was sent 
for to sweep a chimney; it was at a money- 
changer’s, and there he saw heaps of gold. That 
very night he broke open the money-changer’s 
door, and stole as much gold as he could carry.” 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


113 


‘‘What a thief!” said the tailor, with a sigh. 

“ He managed uncommonly well,” continued the 
old dame ; “ and never a crow would have cawed 
about it, if his stupid wife, with her airs and her 
finery, had not let it all out.” 

“How, do you know whom I pity most?” said 
a girl : “ ’tis Katie, the shoemaker’s daughter. 
Look at her, standing there, poor creature ; she is 
half dead with grief.” 

“ I can well believe that,” was the reply. 
“Dame Smet was always telling her that she 
should be a my lady too, and live in a big house 
on the Meir. She has turned the poor thing’s 
head; and now all her castles in the air have 
tumbled to pieces. She was going to be married ; 
now she’ll have to wait ten or fifteen years, till her 
Pauw has served out his time at Vilvoorden.” 

“ How can Pauw help it, if his father has done 
wrong?” stammered the girl, 

“Yes, but you see,” mumbled the old dame, 
“ the footprints in the money-changer’s house show 
that the schouwveger was not alone.” 

“Poor Pauw! poor Katie!” said the girl, with 
a melancholy voice, as if oppressed by a painful 
conviction. 

“The gendarmes won’t catch Pauw,” said one. 
“He’s a slippery rogue; he’s made himself scarce 
betimes. He’s over the frontier by this time, you 
may be sure, with his pockets well lined.” 

“Kobe, you spit- venom!” exclaimed* the me- 
chanic. “I saw Pauw on the ramparts only a 
io« 


114 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


minute or two ago. He was running up and 
down like a body who has lost his senses.” 

Don’t you see, he knows all about it? If a ^ 
man isn’t guilty, he has no cause for fear.” 

^‘No; I suppose you wouldn’t have him laugh 
when the gendarmes came to seize his father and 
mother !” 

No one had any doubt of the schouwveger’s 
guilt; most of the neighbors even felt a secret joy 
at the disgrace which had fallen on his supercilious 
wif8. 

Yet many stood there with sadness on their f 
countenances and in their hearts, and really d 
mourned over the fate of Master Smet and his 
som The whole affair to them was a mystery. 
Such fine fellows, beloved by everybody for their 
good-humor and kindness — that they should have 
perpetrated a robbery at dead of night! Jan- 
Grap and Pauwken-Plezier, who seemed to live 
in such full trust in God’s providence and grace — 
that they should have committed so horrible a 
crime — for lust of gold 1 

But, though these friends of the schouwveger’s 
tried very hard to find arguments to vindicate him 
in their own minds, the sight of the gendarme, 
who stood at the door, overthrew them all at once. 

The schouwveger was all this time sitting in the 
front room of his house. He was quite prostrated, 
and had buried his head in his hands. An 
ofiicer kept watch over him while his wife was 
being examined in the back room. 


ME HAPPINESS OE BEING BICH. 


115 


In this room there were assembled two or three 
personages of the supreme court of judicature, 
and in addition, the commissary of police and two 
gendarmes. They had made Dame Smet sit down 
opposite the judge who was to interrogate her. 
She smiled with wonderful boldness, and did not 
appear in the least disconcerted. 

‘‘You say,” continued the judge, “that you have 
had the money in your house a long time, and 
that it is a part of your father’s inheritance ?” 

“Yes.” 

“Yet it is notorious that your father left no 
money of any kind behind him.” 

“ I suppose I know best about that,” replied the 
dame, without hesitation. “What he gave me 
during his illness would not, of course, be found 
after his death.” 

“ And to how much, now, did the money amount 
that you have kept concealed hitherto?” 

The dame seemed to reflect a moment. 

“ Come, now, speak ; if you don’t know the 
exact sum, how much was it — about, as near as 
you can guess ?” 

“I see clearly,” said Dame Smet, with a smile, 
“you are trying to catch me with some trick or 
other; but it won’t do, gentlemen ; I am not to be 
caught so easily.” 

“How much?” said the judge, with an accent 
of command. 

“It might be a few thousand crowns.” 

“ But how many thousand ?” 


116 THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 

‘‘I don’t know exactly; I haven’t written it in 
any book.” 

‘‘Was it ten thousand ?” 

“Yes, more than that.” 

“But how can you explain that you have lived 
here for twenty years as poor working-people ; and 
now, all at once, you run about from shop to shop 
with your pockets full of gold? Here are hun- 
dreds of crowns spent in clothes and jewels ; and 
now you are trjdng to get a house that would 
stand you in at least four thousand francs a year.” 

“ Everybody has his own tastes. I am of a good 
family, and I expected that I should soon have a 
legacy from my aunt in Holland, who is enor- 
mously rich. So I said to myself, ‘I will save up 
my money till I can begin to live in a style suitable 
to my rank.’ ” 

“How much money have you in the house 
now?” 

“Ho more.” 

“How, no more? Yesterday you showed a 
whole handful of gold-pieces to the owner of a 
house on the St. James’s market. What has be- 
come of that money ?” 

“ Suppose I chose to give it away, and didn’t 
wish to say to whom ?” 

The judge shook his head angrily, and said — 

“ You are making up a story, and not telling 
the truth. We’ll find a way to bring you to your 
senses. Your husband is now going to appear 
before us. Take notice, that if you speak a single 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 117 

word until I ask you a question, you shall be taken 
out into the other room.’' 

Then, turning to a gendarme, he said — 

Bring the husband here.” 

When the schouwveger entered the room and 
saw the judges of the supreme court there, he 
began to tremble so violently that the gendarme 
was obliged to support him to the chair which had 
been placed for him. He was bloodless as a corpse, 
and did not seem to hear the first questions of the 
judge. 

They gave him a little time to recover himself, 
and in the meanwhile the examiners interchanged 
significant looks with one another, as though the 
mortal terror of the suspected man convinced them 
that they had the real criminal before them. 

What most disconcerted the schouwveger was 
the sight of his wife, who seemed wonderfully cool, 
but kept her eye fixed on that of her husband with 
a penetrating severity of expression. 

Master Smet had resolved to tell the whole truth ; 
but now that his wife held him fascinated by the 
expression of her eye, his courage quite forsook 
him. 

‘‘How, answer me,” said the judge to him at 
length ; “ where does the money come from that 
we find all at once in your possession ?” 

“My wife — my wife has inherited it,” said 
the schouwveger, with a confused and stammering 
voice. 

“From her aunt in Holland, isn’t it? 


118 


THE HAPPI1??ESS OF BEING RICH. 


Yes, I believe so.’' 

Dame Smet became livid with repressed wrath ; 
she shook with the violence of the efforts she made 
to restrain herself, but it was all in vain. She 
exclaimed, with angry impetuosity — 

Confound you ! what are you prating about 
there ? — He has had a blow on the head, gentle- 
men ; he has no more sense than a baby six weeks 
old. AYhat use is it to ask questions of such a 
poor simpleton ?” 

‘^Gendarme,” said the judge, authoritatively, 

take the wife by the arm ; at the least word or 
sign lead her off!” 

Dame Smet trembled with rage, yet she did not 
dare to speak again. It was probably not without 
design that they kept her in the room; for the 
examiners carefully took notice of all the changing 
emotions which depicted themselves on her coun- 
tenance. 

^^You say, then,” asked the judge, turning to 
the schouwveger, “that your wife has inherited 
some money from her aunt in Holland?” 

“ Yes — no, no — from her father — rest his soul 1” 
was the feeble and reluctant answer. 

“Yes and no? Take care, my man; don’t 
play your jokes with the law. You may have 
cause to rue it. How tell me plainly and with- 
out circumlocution, — where does the money come 
from ?” 

Master Smet returned no answer. The ex- 
aminers thought that his silence was intentional, 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


119 


but they were wrong. The poor man was quite 
paralyzed by terror ; he could not speak. 

‘‘Is it always thus/’ continued the judge, “that 
you have accounted to the neighbors for your 
sudden wealth ? Have you not spoken of a sum 
of money which you had borrowed in advance, on 
the security of your expected legacy ?” 

“ Oh, sir,” sighed Master Smet, rubbing his pale 
forehead, “I don’t know. Yes, I believe it was 
so.” 

A peculiar expression of contemptuous com- 
passion passed over the features of the ex- 
aminers. 

“And the money you borrowed amounted to a 
considerable sum? some thousand crowns?” 

“Ho, no — a few hundreds.” 

“Hot thousands, then?” 

“ I don’t know clearly.” 

“ Speak the truth,” exclaimed the judge, raising 
his voice, and using a gesture of threatening; “we 
know all about it. Your wife is better advised 
than you are. She maintains that you have bor- 
rowed several thousand crowns.” 

A fresh nervous paroxysm shook the poor 
schouwveger. 

“ It is possible,” he faltered out ; “ I don’t know 
what I am saying. Yes — some thousands — ” 

The judge allowed a few moments to elapse, 
and then addressed him with a voice of reassuring 
kindness : 

“ My man, you are not straightforward, and you 


120 


THE HAPPINESS OP BEING RICH. 


are contradicting yourself at every word you say. 
I will tell you what you are accused of; perhaps 
you may then see that you have nothing to gain 
by concealing the truth from us. About ten days 
ago, on a Friday night, a considerable quantity of 
gold and silver was stolen from a money-changer’s. 
You are suspected of being the thief; and all the 
circumstances, your own words themselves, witness 
against you. If you don’t wish to be led ofl* to 
prison by the gendarmes, tell me, at once and 
truly, where the money came from that has been 
seen in your wife’s possession.” 

The schouwveger stared at the judge, quite 
bewildered, and unable to utter a word. 

You admit, then,” asked the judge, ‘‘that 
you are guilty, and that you have committed this 
crime ?” 

“No, no,” exclaimed the terrified man; “I have 
not stolen — ” 

“ Can you explain to us why, on that very night, 
you roused the neighbors by your cries for help ? 
why you shouted, ‘Fire, fire !’ ? Was it not in order 
to make them believe that you had been all night 
in your own house, and thus to conceal your 
criminal visit to the money-changer from the eyes 
of justice ?” 

“ I had been dreaming,” sighed the schouwveger, 
with a scarcely audible voice ; and then his head 
sank down on his breast as though he had been 
stunned by a sudden blow. 

“We know enough,” said the judge, rising; 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


121 


^we shall obtain further evidence by searching the 
premises.” 

He gave the signal, and Master Smet and his 
wife were seized by the gendarmes ; and all who 
were present followed the judge. 

The terrified husband and wife were led all over 
the house ; every thing was thrown into confusion, 
not the smallest corner remaining unexplored. 

Dame Smet was quite unconcerned, and smiled, 
from time to time, at the fruitlessness of the search. 
She looked her husband full in the face at inter- 
vals, and seemed thus at once to encourage him to 
stand firm, and to threaten him if he lost his 
presence of mind. 

In the attic several planks were taken up; for the 
plaster with which the rat-holes had been stopped 
excited suspicion. But they found no-thing. 

The judge asked many questions about the gold 
that had so mysteriously disappeared, but he could 
not extract from Dame Smet any sufficient expla- 
nation. The schO'Uwveger leaned, almost insensi- 
ble, against the wall, and could give no answer. 
He gazed at the beam like a man petrified; his 
treasure was there ! 

Amazed and vexed at his fruitless efforts to 
discover the stolen money, the judge abandoned 
the search and slowly descended the stairs. 

Smet and his wife were again brought into the 
room, and there the gendarmes produced their 
ropes and handcuffs, at a sign given them by the 
*udge. When the schouwveger saw these degrad- 
11 


122 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


ing preparations, he uttered a mournful shriek, 
and fell fainting on a chair. 

His wife, on the contrary, regarded these pre- 
liminaries with a smile of disdain, as though she 
thought them but a feint to shake their courage. 

‘^For the last time,” said the judge, in a severe 
tone of voice; ^Hhere are the cords Avith which 
your hands Avill be tied behind your back. You 
will be led as a criminal through the streets to the 
prison. For the last time I beg you, for jonr own 
sake, to speak the truth. Where did all j-our 
money come from?” 

The schouAvveger was half dead Avith terror and 
apprehension ; the perspiration stood in large drops 
on his forehead ; and, as though his fear had de- 
prived him of speech, he stared unconsciously at 
the floor. 

‘Well, noAv, speak; AA'here did the money come 
from?” 

A mournful scream echoed at this moment from 
the front room, and, before the judge could finish 
his question, a young man sprang shrieking into 
the apartment. He looked round AAuth a glance 
rapid as lightning; and he must have heard the 
question of the judge, for he fell on his knees 
before the schouAvveger, and, lifting his hands Avith 
a gesture of earnest entreaty, he cried — 

“ Oh, father, father I A\diere did the money come 
from ? Oh, for God’s sake, speak ! You steal ? 
you a villain ? Gendarmes, cords, handcuft's ! Ho, 
no, it is impossible ! it is a hideous dream ! 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 123 

The deadly paleness of the youth, his hair stand- 
ing erect with fright, and the unutterably powerful 
appeal that lay in the glance of his eyes, made so 
deep an impression on the schouwveger that he 
burst into a flood of tears, and exclaimed, with a 
tremulous voice — 

‘‘ I have deserved it all ! God has punished me !” 

‘‘Deserved? deserved?” yelled Pauw, tearing 
his hair in an agony. 

But Master Smet drew himself up, wiped away 
the tears from his eyes, and raising his son from 
the ground, he pressed him to his heart with eager 
affection, saying, in a cheerful tone — 

ITo, my child, your father has done very wrong ; 
but he is an honest man ; he will explain all.” 

And turning himself to the judge, he said, with 
calm deliberation — 

“ Sir, I will show you the treasuix3, and you shall 
see how the money came into our hands.” 

Dame Smet thrust her flsts into his face threaten- 
ingly, and roared, with her features convulsed by 
passion — 

“If you dare, coward!” 

“ Gendarme, lead the wife away !” said the judge. 

“There is no need, sir,” said the schouwveger; 
“ my resolution is taken ; I will explain every 
thing to you as I ought to have done at first. I 
have not stolen ; it is a treasure I have found.” 

Pauw fell on his knees in the middle of the 
room, and exclaimed, with tears of joy and gra- 
titude — 


T 


124 


THE HAPPINESS OE BEING RICH. 


Oil, my God, I tliaiik thee, I thank thee for 
thy mercy and goodness !” 

Are you now ready to give us a full explana- 
tion?” asked the judge. 

Yes, yes,” replied the schouwveger; ^‘but, sir, 
I have a request to make. Will you have the 
goodness to grant it?” 

"‘We shall see ; if it is possible.” 

“You see, sir, this money has made me miser- 
able ; it is the pest of my house. Oh, have com- 
passion on. me, and take this plague away ! take it 
all away with you !” 

Dame Smet began to sob and cry aloud. 

“ Well, show us the treasure,” said the judge, 
with a voice of authority. 

The schouwveger led the officers of justice up 
to the attic, showed him that the great beam was 
hollow at the bottom, and said — 

“ The gold is in there. Ten days ago, one 
Friday evening, the rats were scampering about 
the attic and making a terrible noise ; I was chas- 
ing two of them with an old sabre that is now 
hanging behind my bed. By chance I struck this 
beam, and was astonished at the hollow sound it 
gave; at the second blow, a square plank and a 
bag of money fell out on my toes. I have nothing 
else to say, gentlemen, except that the fear of 
thieves, and the fear that you would take away 
the money from us, have made me say and do a 
great many foolish and wicked things. This, you 
see, is the pure and simple truth.” 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


125 


And with these words he took the plank out of 
the beam, and showed the judge the cavity. 

The judge stooped and drew out the bag of 
money ; a large number of gold and silver pieces 
rolled out on the floor, because the bag, rotten 
with age, had burst a second time. But, at the 
same time, there fell from the beam something 
else, which the schouwveger had not noticed. It 
was a small, well-worn pocketbook, with a parch- 
ment cover. 

Conjecturing that this book might* contain a 
confirmation or a refutation of the explanation 
made b}^ the schouwweger, the judge seized it 
eagerly, and turned it over with very remarkable 
attention. 

Turning to the weeping Dame Smet, he asked — • 
What is your father’s name, my woman ?” 

‘‘ Vandenberg, Peter Vandenberg,” sobbed she. 

Without further remark the judge ripped up the 
bag still wider, and gathered out of it a certain 
number of pieces. Then he made a sign to his 
companions, and, drawing them aside in a corner, 
he said to them — 

This man speaks the truth ; there are no crimi- 
nals here. This little book is a memorandum- 
book of the wife’s father, telling the sums of mo- 
ney which he had deposited, from time to time, in 
the beam ; and he has even written in it that he 
destined the whole of it to his daughter. We 
know the man had the reputation of being miserly 
and rich ; and as he died suddenly, he had no time 

T ii-s. 


126 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


to say where his money was hidden. Besides, 
look, the treasure contains old ducats, French 
crowns, and even Brabant shillings. It is not 
money like this that the money-changer has been 
robbed of. We have nothing further to do here.” 

His hearers nodded their heads approvingly. 

Then going up to the schouwveger, the judge 
said — 

^^My man, you have given yourself a great deal 
of unnecessary trouble and vexation. The money 
is legally yours.” 

Oh, take it away with you !” implored Master 
Smet. 

‘‘Simpleton!” said the judge, with a smile; 
“ we have nothing to do with it. Listen ; the 
seven hundred and sixteenth article of the city 
statute-book says : ‘ The right of property in a 
treasure belongs to him who finds it on his own 
premises; if he finds it on any other man’s pre- 
mises, then half belongs to the finder and half to 
him on whose premises it is found 1’ This house 
is yours ; consequently, the whole treasure belongs 
to you.” 

“ Then the plague must remain in my house !” 
muttered the schouwveger, discontentedly. 

To Dame Smet, who came rushing forward with 
joy and eagerness, the judge said — 

“ Dame, this gold is the inheritance your father 
has bequeathed you; you must regard this little 
book as his will. Farewell, and try both of you to 
make a good use of your riches.” 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


127 


While the officers of justice were leaving the 
attic, the dame Avas gathering the money, in speech- 
less haste, into her apron, and then she ran down- 
stairs with it, snarling the while at her husband — 
Coward ! confound you ! I’ll pay you out for 
this !” 

When she had brought all her treasure down- 
stairs, she threw it in the chest, took out a hand- 
ful of gold-pieces, locked the chest, and then ran 
out into the street, and strutted with haughty ex- 
ultation through the assembled crowd, who stood 
gaping and staring after her until she had disap- 
peared from the little street. 

Pauw was quite wild with joy. He rushed doAvn 
the stairs to go to Katie ; but, seeing the shoe- 
maker and his daughter in the street, he seized a 
hand of each, and cried — 

“Ha, come, come, Katie dear, it was all moon- 
shine ! Master Dries, come with me ; my father 
will be so happy if you come and wish him luck.’' 

Already the result of the search was known to 
the waiting crowd. 

“Pauw, Pauw, good luck. Mynheer Pauw!” 
shouted the young girls, clapping their hands Avith 
sincere and hearty congratulations. 

“Oh, call me ahvays PauAvken-Plezier 1” said 
the young man, imploringly, as he led the shoe- 
maker and his daughter toward the door. 

“ Long live PauAvken ! Long live PauAvken- 
Plezier !” resounded through the street. 

The schouwveger no sooner saAV his friend the 


128 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING VxlCE. 


shoemaker than he burst into tears, and rushed 
to meet him with open arms. Pressing his old 
friend to his heart, he sobbed aloud — 

Oh, Dries, look, this is the happiest day of my 
life ! I totter on my legs with joy. What I have 
suflfered from this cursed money passes all descrip- 
tion ; no pen could write it!” 

‘‘Is every thing all clear now?” asked the 
shoemaker. 

“ Yes, yes ; we found the gold here in the house; 
it was the inheritance of my wufe.” 

“God be praised, Jan! I have been sitting 
shaking all over as if you were my own brother.” 

“Well, Dries, you are all the same as my own 
brother. Listen; now we’ll make haste, and let 
our children be married.” 

“But you are a rich man now? Your wife?” 
muttered the shoemaker. 

“What do you mean by rich?” said Master 
Smet, merrily. “I am still Jan-Grap, your friend. 
We’ve sung out our song about my ladies and 
mamsels ! Yow that I don’t mean to bother myself 
about the money. I’ll soon see whether I’m master 
or not!” 

“I ask nothing better than to see my child 
happy,” answered his friend. “Not for the monej^ ; 
but they have loved one another, with a virtuous 
love and with our approbation, many a long year. 
My poor Katie — I believe she would have wasted 
a^/ay, really, in case — ” 

“ Come, come, not a word more about such 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


129 


horrid things as that !” exclaimed the schouw- 
veger. “Let me see: drawing up the papers; 
the banns in church; — yes, within seven weeks 
wedl have the wedding-feast! Ha, that shall be 
a feast, friend Dries ! That shall be something to 
talk about I Money shall be of some use for once. 
I’ll invite all the neighbors, and we’ll set off in 
five or six coaches to Dikke-Me or to Jan-Stek’s.* 
We’ll take the fiddlers with us, and we’ll dance 
imAjlikker^ we’ll sing and jump — bless me ! won’t 
we, then?” 

His voice failed him, and he burst suddenly into 
tears. 

“What is the matter, Jan?” asked the asto- 
nished shoemaker. 

“ Nothing; ’tis nothing at all, my friend,” faltered 
out the schouwveger; “only my gladness sticks 
in my throat. My heart is full — running over. I 
have gone through so much these last few days, 
that I seem now as if I had escaped out of hell !” 

With increasing emotion, he continued — 

“That’s settled, isn’t it, Dries? — our children are 
to be married as soon as possible, without a single 
day’s delay?” 

“ ’Tis rather soon, isn’t it ?” 

“ Good things are never too soon : this cursed 
money may come in the way again. But, Dries, 
I’ve one thing to ask of you. You see, your tem- 


* Two large taverns outside the city of Antwerp, favorite 
resorts of the citizens. 


130 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


per is rather short, and my wife’s tongue is rather 
long; now, these two things don’t get on well 
together. She will be sure to show her teeth 
:5yhen she sees j^ou, for she fancies it is all youv 
doing that the officers of justice paid us a visit. 
You’re looking rather sour about it. Now, keep 
your temper, man, and be reasonable ; and a little 
accommodating, too. My wife may be uncivil to 
you : well, let her have her way. We have the 
disposal of our children, anyhow ; and if we make 
up our minds that the^^ shall be married, who is 
to hinder it ?” 

‘‘ That is true.” 

^^AVell, now, you won’t be put out by a few 
words and ugly faces, will you?” 

‘^No; I’ll act as if I were blind and deaf.” 

Come, now, that’s spoken like a sensible man. 
Give me your hand ; that’s settled, then. 

He turned then to his son and Katie, who were 
standing at the window, clasping each other’s 
hands, and had probably heard all that had been 
said ; for their countenances beamed with radiant 
joy, though quiet tears were trickling down their 
cheeks. 

^•Come, Katie,” cried the schouwveger, ‘‘hug 
me round the neck, girl ; seven weeks more and 
I shall be your father!” 

The girl ran, with an exclamation of heartfelt 
gladness, and threw her arms round the schouw- 
veger’s neck. Pauw had rushed toward his 
father under the impulse of a similar emotion ; 


I 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 131 

and all four were rapt in the bliss of true, sincere, 
heartfelt affection. 

‘‘Eh! eh! whafs this going on in my house?'* 
resounded all at once through the room, in a 
threatening tone. 

As though this voice had thrilled painfully to 
their hearts, they released themselves from each 
other’s arms, and looked with astonishment 
toward the door. 

There stood Dame Smet, tossing her head in the 
air, and with a smile of ineflFahle contempt on her 
face. 

“Well, well, these are pretty doings!” ex 
claimed she; “I can’t leave the house a minute 
but when I come back I find it full of cobblers !” 

The shoemaker’s face became pale with rage. 

“Yes, yes; be as sulky as you like,” said she, 
with an expression of scornful disdain ; “ I shall 
only laugh at you for your pains. I am mistress 
here.” 

“But, Dame Smet — ” stammered the shoemaker. 

“Dame! dame! I am no dame” snarled she; 
“you must say my lady^ when you presume to 
speak to me !” 

Pauw looked steadily at his father, for he saw 
that he was quivering with anger and vexation-. 

Dame Smet pointed to the door, and said to the 
shoemaker, in a tone of great excitement — 

“Be oft*! quick! out of my house with your 
dainty daughter ! That such mean, vulgar people 
should ever cross my threshold, indeed ! ’Tis a 


132 the happiness oe being kich. i 

good thing that we are going to live on the St. ' J 
James's market, with a porte-cochere all to oiir- J 
selves 

The shoemaker took his danghter’^s hand, and | 
led her ont into the street, muttering to himself 
as he went. : ^ 

Tlien burst forth the schouwveger’s wrath in an 
impetuous and irresistible storm. He uttered un- 
intelligible sounds; he sprang at his wife — but 
Pauw had placed himself between them, and kept 
them apart with desperate effort. '1 

Let me go !* let me go !” yelled Master Smet. 

‘‘ I’ll twist her haughty neck for her.” >; 

Pauw prayed, and implored, and shed tears, and ’ 
made such successful resistance, that his father had ; 
time to recover himself and cool down a little. 

After a few more threats and execrations, the : 
schouwveger said, as if quite overcome — 

^VCome, Pauw, come up-stairs, or that woman 
will give me a fit of apoplexy.” And, according 
to his wont, he ran quickly up the stairs to avoid ’ 
further altercation. j 

The whole day was spent thus in quarrelling ^ 
and in sullenness. The dame declared she would 
not hear Katie’s name mentioned, and poured out i 
a flood of abuse against the poor girl and her | 
father. j 

Now she had the notion of some my lady more | 
firmly fixed in her head than before. Leocadie, at | 
the corner shop, had already become far too vulgar | 
to be admitted into her family. I 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


133 


Pauw did nothing but weep, and retired into his 
room very early, to bewail his wretched fate iii 
solitude. 

At length the schouwveger went slowly up-stairs, 
muttering, in the bitterness of his soul — 

‘‘ The plague is still in my house, I see ! This 
cursed money ! I wish it would sink down through 
the earth into the pit it came from 


CHAPTER VIII. 

Very early the next morning, when the first 
beams of the sun were beginning to disperse the 
gloom of the little street, the shoemaker and his 
daughter were on their way to church ; but they 
had scarcely left their door, and walked a few 
steps down the street, when the girl suddenly 
stood still, and said, pointing to the schouwveger’s 
house — 

‘‘Father, look! Master Smet’s door is wide 
open ; the windows are all bolted still 1” 

“ Good heavens 1 what can it be V exclaimed 
the shoemaker. “The lock is wrenched oft’ the 
door. Depend on it, the thieves have been there 
to-night. Come, Katie, I will knock them up.” 

And so saying, he began to kick at the door to 
awaken the inmates of the house. 

“Don’t kick so hard, father,” said the girl, 
12 


134 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


trembling with apprehension; you’ll frighten 
Dame Smet. Wait a bit; give them time to get 
their clothes on.” 

After a shoi4 pause, the shoemaker began to 
kick again ; and when he heard, a few moments 
after, the sound of footsteps on the stairs, he 
entered the house. 

‘‘Who opened the door to you ?” asked Dame 
Smet, in a menacing tone. ““Didn’t I tell you 
you were to keep away from my house ?” 

“ There you are at it again !” growled the 
schouwveger. “Pauw has gone to the first mass, 
I suppose. But, anyhow. Master Dries can’t have 
dropped through the ceiling.” 

“jN’o, no, my friends, it is not as you think,” 
said the shoemaker; “your door has been broken 
open. I am quite in a fright; I am afraid some- 
thing has happened.” 

“ The door broken open !” shrieked Dame Smet, 
while a mortal paleness overspread her face ; “oh, 
my money, my money !” 

She ran with an eager cry to the chest, and 
threw it open. A stifled groan broke from her 
breast; she covered her face with her hands, and 
fell on a chair, sobbing in anguish and despair. 

“My money — my money is gone!” she crie(' 

“ stolen — stolen !” 

The schouwveger seemed surprised at the un 
expected tidings, and remained a moment staring 
round, as though he were asking whether he ought 
to laugh or cry. But in a moment his mind reco- 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 135 

vered itself ; a smile ran over liis features, but he 
forcibly repressed this indication of gladness; and, 
that he might not add to his wife’s distress, he 
behaved as if he were quite amazed — yes, even 
somewhat afflicted. 

Katie had taken Dame Smet’s hand, and was 
crj'ing with sincere sympathy. 

‘•Jan,” said the shoemaker, in a soothing tone, 

“ ’tis a great misfortune, my friend ; but you must 
not be crushed down by it. God giveth — God 
taketh away. I am very sorry for your distress.” 

“My distress!” said Master Smet, speaking in , 
a low voice, that his wife might not overhear him ; 

“ if you fancy I’m going to shed one tear for this 
bewitched money that was doomed to make me 
wretched, you are much mistaken, friend Dries. 

I am sorry for my wife ; but for that I should 
say — ‘ God be praised that the plague is well out 
of my house 1’ ” 

“Oh, oh!” groaned Dame Smet, wringing her 
hands, “ my money — my poor money ! the legacy 
of my father! ’Twill be the death of me.” 

And indeed the poor woman looked so dread- 
fully ill, that the schouwveger feared she was go- 
ing to faint away, and, running for some vinegar, 
he poured out a handful, and rubbed it on the face 
of his wife; but she repelled him angrily, as 
though she would not be tended by him. 

. “Let me alone!” she cried, snappishly. “You 
are in high feather about it ; I see it clear enough 
— on your hypocritical face !” 


136 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


Come, now, Trees,” said he, ^^you mustn’t 
take on so about it. The money is gone, sure 
enough; but our miserable life, our quarrels, and 
all our vexations and grievances, are gone away 
with it too. Come, come, dame, pluck up your 
courage. I shall set to work again briskly enough. 
We shall live in peace, and our days will glide 
away merrily, just as they used to do.” 

“Oh, mother, mother!” cried Katie, “how un 
foitunate you are !” 

“Yes,” sobbed the dame ; “you, only you, child, 
have any sympathy with me. The unfeeling log 
of wood ! there he stands grinning in my face ! 
He’d see anybody die before his very eyes, with- 
out giving them a single word of comfort. I feel 
grateful to you, Katie, for ciying with me. Oh, 
oh 1 my money, my money ! 

At this moment Pauw came running down the 
stairs. 

“Eh! eh! what’s up now?” said he, with a laugh. 
“I begin to believe that our house is bewitched. 
And Katie, you here ? with my mother? Ila, ha! 
then you’ve made it all up ?” 

“Be quiet, Pauw,” said the schouwveger; “a 
great misfortune has happened. The thieves have 
stolen all our money in the night !” 

“Well, thank God ! thank God!” shouted Pauw, 
cutting an unusually vigorous jiikker ; “that’s 
capital ! Kow, Pauwken-Plezier will be a schouw- 
veger again !” 

His mother, deeply wounded by his unfeeling 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 137 

rapture, sprang to her feet, and exclaimed, an- 
grily— 

You, too, you good-for-nothing boy, you laugh 
at my distress !” 

The young man took her hand, and murmured, 
in a tone of sympathy and affection, as though 
he had now first grasped the real state of the 
case — 

Oh, mother, I never thought of that ; you have 
been crying ! indeed, indeed, you must be in great 
distress.” 

And he led her gently back to her chair, sat 
down by her side, and, pressing her hand tenderly, 
he said — 

‘‘ Mother dear, look up a bit. The loss of the 
money must be a great trouble to you — I quite feel 
that ; but think, now, that we were not happy with 
it. Since it came into our possession, there have 
been more irritation, more quarrelling, more vexa 
tion, in our house than in all my life before. You 
and father — you used to be so affectionate to each 
other, and every thing was so comfortable and so 
nice, that one couldn’t be better off in the king’s 
palace. From the day the money was found, you 
have been always sad, and always looking as sour 
as vinegar ; father has been growing thin, Katie 
has been pining away, and I was losing my wits 
fast. There was nothing but suffering and an- 
noyance !” 

Yes, Pauw, but it was all your father’s fault,” 
answered the dame ; ‘‘he couldn’t bear his sudden 
12 * 


138 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


wealth; but I, who am of a good family, I was 
born to be rich, you see.” 

‘‘Yes, everybody knows that well,” said Pauw, 
with a gentle, insinuating voice; “but you are my 
mother for all that, and you have no other child 
but me. And since you know now that the mo- 
ney made father and me miserable, you, who are 
so tender and loving, won’t you take a little com- 
fort? Won’t you say to yourself: ‘In God’s name, 
then, ’tis all the same if only we are peaceful and 
contented’ ?” 

“To be poor — poor!'' said Dame Smet, sobbing 
afresh. 

“ Come, Trees, be a reasonable woman !” said the 
schouwveger; “isn’t afiection worth more than 
any thing else? We have lived so long together, 
and we have loved each other so truly — so we will 
again ; and perhaps hereafter you will bless God 
that he has taken the wretched money from us.” 

“Hold your tongue,” snarled she; “I dare say 
you have been praying for this.” 

“But, mother,” continued Pauw, “only think a 
bit how things were before. Father and I — we 
were always full of mirth; we had always some- 
thing funny to make people laugh; everybody loved 
us. There was never a cross word in the house, 
or in the street, or in the whole neighborhood ; 
everybody was a friend to us.” 

lie threw his arms round her neck, and mur- 
mured, with thrilling tenderness in his voice — 

“Look, mother, this beautiful and happy life 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


139 


will come back again ; father and I will drink a 
pint of beer the less, and save to buy you a fine 
ckess now and then ; and as Katie will live with 
you, you will be waited on like a my lady ; we 
shall love you, and treat you with respect. You 
will have more happiness and enjoyment in your 
life than you would have with the money.” 

^‘But, Pauw, lad, what will people say when 
I pass along the street?” said Dame Smet, with a 
melancholy voice. 

What will they say ? Oh, mother. I'll g® with 
you and father this very day, and will have a walk 
on the Dyke. I’ll walk by your side, and give you 
my arm; I’ll carry my head up, and look every- 
body full in the face. We are honest people. 
Those who don’t know us won’t care about us, and 
those who do will say that we are sensible, strong- 
minded people, who take thankfully either fortune 
or misfortune, as it pleases God to send it.” 

The half-consoled dame began to weep afresh. 
She pressed her son to her heart, and said — 

‘‘In God’s name, then, I shall be a rich woman 
some day ; if not now, then it will be hereafter. 
You must be a schouwveger again, then, Pauw. 
It frets me; but as it canmA be otherwise, and 
since you like it — ” 

She then released Pauw, and bestowed a similar 
embrace on the girl at her side. 

“Come, Katie, darling child, you are the best 
of them all,” sobbed she. “Men don’t know 
what it is to be rich; but you would soon have got 
u 


140 


THE HAPPINESS )P BEING HIGH. 


used to it, wouldn’t yoi t Well, ’twill come some 
day. Don’t fret about it. My aunt in Holland 
can’t last much longer; she must be more than 
eighty years old.” 

Pauw" had silently left the room without being 
observed. 

Suddenly, as th ;ugh a terrible thought had 
pierced her heart. Dame Smet began to tremble ; 
she sprang up, and, stretching out her hands 
toward her husband, she exclaimed — 

‘‘Oh, good hea^^ens! Smet, there’s five-and- 
twenty crowns to be paid at the jeweller’s. Oh, 
my God, what a debt ! We shall never be able to 
pay it ! To be poor isn’t so bad — but to be in 
debt !” 

And with a lam>5ntable voice, she added, 
“ There is one way — ’tis very hard, but any thing 
rather than debt — I’ll lake my jewels back to 
him.” 

The schouwveger pressed her hand, and said, 
cheerfully — 

“No, no. Trees dear, you shall not take any 
thing back; you may keep all you have got.” 

“But who will pay for them ?” 

“I will, I will. Trees.’' 

“You?” 

“Yes; I had put a little money on one side, to 
provide against accidents, and for Pauw’s wedding. 
Wait a moment !” 

He placed a chair on the hearth, thrust his head 
up the chimney, reached out a piece of cloth in 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


141 


which he had wrapped the money, and then he 
went to the table, and spread out a number of 
gold-pieces on it. 

Dame Smet was deeply affected by the sight of 
this little remnant of her legacy. A glad smile 
played on her features; her bosom heaved; and 
she gazed without speaking on the glittering gold. 

^‘Look you, Trees,’' said her husband, ^^this 
money belongs to you ; you may do what you like 
with it ; only, I beg you, let us keep the greater 
part of it for Pauw and Katie’s wedding, and to 
set them up in a little shop.” 

His wife said nothing, and seemed lost in deep 
thought. 

Suddenly their attention was arrested by the 
cry — aejp^ aep^ aep! which seemed to come from 
the cellar; and they all turned their eyes in that 
direction with a smile, for they had no doubt that 
it was Pauw’s voice. 

And in a moment he was heard singing, as 
lively and merry as ever — 

“ Schouwvegers gay, who live in A. B., 

Companions so jolly, 

All frolic and folly — 

and he came bounding into the room, making the 
most surprising gestures and grimaces. 

He had put on all his chimney-sweeper’s clothes, 
flourished his brush in his hand, and had black- 
ened his face^ with soot. 

Hurrah !” shouted he ; ‘‘ Pauwken-Plezier’s 
u 


142 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


come again ! Father, mother, Katie, I'm so happy 
Let ns all be merry again ! Sorrow and spleen are 
afraid of a black face ! Come, sing, dance, and 
mirth forever !" 

Pauw took Katie’s hand, and proceeded to dance 
round the room with her; but the girl resisted his 
affectionate violence. 

When he saw the chimney-sweeper’s clothes 
which he had worn from a child, and in which he 
had enjoyed so much peace and pure joy. Master 
Smet was affected in a very extraordinary manner. 
He burst into tears, and sobbed aloud with joyful 
emotion. 

‘‘Well done, Pauw! Ha, that’s right, lad!” he 
shouted. “There’s nothing can beat a schouw- 
veger’s life ! If your mother will let me. I’ll put 
on my black clothes, too. Ay, ay, Pauw, mirth 
forever! So be it!” 

The mother made a sign to them to be quiet, as 
though she had something weighty to say. 

She then turned to the shoemaker ; and, reaching 
forth her hand to him, with a gentle smile, she 
said — 

“Master Dries, I was much vexed yesterday ; I 
was very uncivil to you, wasn’t I? Will you 
forgive me ? Shall we all be friends again as we 
were before ?” 

The shoemaker shook her hand with hearty good- 
will. 

“ All is forgiven and forgotten,” replied he, with 
tears in his eyes. “We both of us limp a little 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH. 


143 


bit on the same leg — soon put out and soon cooled 
down again. We were never cut out for enemies 
— ^weVe been playfellows and good neighbors from 
the cradle.’' 

Dame Smet then turned to her son, and said, 
pointing to the table — 

‘^Pauw, your father put by that money to set. 
you up in a little shop ; I give it all to you. 
Marry Katie as soon as you can ; but, if you love 
me, live with me still. I shall love Katie, and 
I will teach her good manners against the time 
my legacy comes.” 

“We will live with you, mother; we will live 
all united until death shall divide us,” said Pauw. 

“ Oh, yes, yes, you will be my good, kind 
mother !” sobbed the girl. 

“ Well, bless me ! how is it possible?” exclaimed 
Dame Smet, in unaffected amazement; “to be 
poor and yet be so happy !” 

“Are you happy, mother dear?” asked Pauw, 
with joyful tenderness. 

“Yes, yes, child; laugh and dance away as 
much as you like.” 

“ Come, come, then-r-let’s have a real heartj 
schouwveger’s song and dance,” said the lad, 
wild with joy ; “just a little rehearsal for the 
wedding, Katie dear; let’s hear Pauwken-Plezier’s 
last new song !” 

He took his parents and the shoemaker and 
Katie by the hand, and in a moment they were all 
whirling and skipping round the room, while the 


144 


THE HAPPINESS OF BEING KICH. 


young seliouwveger roused all the echoes of the 
old street with his lusty song: 

“ Schouwvegers gay, who live in A. B 
Companions so jolly, 

All frolic and folly, — 

Schouwvegers gay, who live in A. B., 

Come out, and sing us a glee. 

Tour schouwveger gay is a right merry fellow; 

Though sooty his skin. 

The wit’s all within. • 

The blacker his phiz 
The blither he is. 


He climbs and he creeps — 
He brushes and sweeps — 
He sings and he leaps — 


At each chimney he drinks till he’s mellow. 


Aep, aep, aep ! 
Light-hearted and free — 
Always welcome is he !” 



THE END. 



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